UC-NRLF 


151 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


MALAYSIA 


By 

BISHOP  WM.  F.  OLDHAM,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 


CINCINNATI  :  JENNINGS  AND  GRAHAM 
NEW  YORK:    EATON   AND    MAINS 


COPYRIGHT,    1907,   BY 
JENNINGS  &  GRAHAM 


(76 


His  STOUT-HEARTED   COMPANION   AND   FELLOW-LA- 

BORER IN  THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  "  MALAYSIA 

MISSION,"  —  THIS  LITTLE  VOLUME  is 


BY  THE  AUTHOR 


Malaysia  Mission,  Founded,  -         -      February,  1885 
Malaysia  Mission,  Organized,     -  1889 

Malaysia  Mission  Conference,  Organized,         -     1893 
Malaysia  Annual  Conference,  Organized,    -          1902 
Philippine  Islands  District,  Divided  from  Ma- 
laysia Annual  Conference,    -  1905 


CONTENTS 

* 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.    MALAYSIA — NATURE'S  WONDER- 
LAND,             -  7 

II.    THE  BRITISH  POSSESSIONS,  14 

III.  PEOPLES  OF  MALAYSIA,                  -  26 

IV.  MALAYSIA  METHODIST  MISSIONS,  32 

V.    THE  SPREAD  OF  METHODIST  MIS- 
SIONS, 42 

VI.    EVANGELISTIC  MISSIONS,                 -  52 

VII.    A  ROMANTIC  EXPERIENCE,  56 

VIII.    JAVA — A  PROVIDENTIAL  MISSION,  -  64 

IX.    THE  JEAN    HAMILTON   MEMORIAL 

TRAINING  SCHOOL,  69 

X.   WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  ASIA,      -        -  75 

XI.    THE  PUBLISHING  HOUSE,  -  83 . 

XII.    CONCLUSION,                                  -  87 


iviS17186 


Malaysia — Nature's 
Wonderland 

CHAPTER  I. 
MALAYSIA — NATURE'S  WONDERLAND. 

MALAYSIA  is  the  name  commonly  given 
to  the  lands  inhabited  by  the  Malay  speak- 
ing peoples  of  Southeastern  Asia.  Some 
British  geographers  prefer  the  term  "Ma- 
laya," but  as  other  British  writers  mean 
by  this  term  only  the  Malay  possessions 
under  the  British  flag,  it  becomes  confus- 
ing to  apply  it  to  all  the  Malay  speaking 
lands  over  which  many  flags  float.  In  this 
little  book,  therefore,  the  term  Malay  will 
connote  only  the  British  possessions  in  Ma- 
laysia, and  the  latter  term  will  be  applied 
to  all  the  Malay  speaking  lands. 

Malaysia  consists  of  a  peninsula  which 
is  the  index  finger  of  Asia  pointing  south- 
7 


8  Malaysia. 

ward,  and  of  that  large  body  of  islands 
which  are  found  on  both  sides  of  the  equa- 
tor from  ten  degrees  north,  to  about  ten 
degrees  south.  Amongst  these  islands, 
which  are  very  numerous,  are  those  of  such 
areas  as  Borneo  and  Sumatra.  There  are 
also  hundreds  of  little  specks  which  barely 
raise  their  heads  above  the  sea.  It  would 
not  be  improper  to  include  in  Malaysia  the 
Philippine  Islands,  but  as  these  have  now 
to  the  American  public  the  distinctive  in- 
terest of  being  our  first  and  only  Asiatic 
possessions,  they  will  be  treated  in  a  sepa- 
rate volume. 

The  Islands  of  Malaysia  have  running 
through  them  a  line  of  volcanic  activity. 
Beginning  with  Sumatra  and  going  east 
and  north  a  distinct  line  of  fire  may  be 
traced  up  to  Japan.  Along  this  line  is 
found  great  volcanic  activity.  Extinct 
craters  and  volcanoes  that  still  threaten 
disturbances  are  to  be  found  in  a  well 
marked  order,  and  along  part  of  the  course 
the  path  is  marked  by  extinct  craters  and 
layers  of  scoriae  and  slag.  On  both  sides 
of  this  line  of  fire  are  lands  as  fertile  and 
as  beautiful  as  any  the  earth  holds. 


Nature's  Wonderland.  9 

If  in  imagination  a  traveler  ascend  one 
of  the  higher  peaks  of  Java  and  look 
around  him,  there  would  be  laid  out  before 
his  delighted  vision  such  a  panorama  as 
would  be  hard  to  parallel.  In  the  far  west 
are  the  dim  outlines  of  the  Island  of  Su- 
matra, an  island  as  large  as  France,  with 
a  population  of  about  four  million  people. 
Java  itself  lies  all  about  him,  with  a  popu- 
lation of  over  fifty  million.  In  the  east  and 
north  there  is  the  bulk  of  Borneo,  a  conti- 
nental island  more  than  eight  times  the  size 
of  Pennsylvania,  while  farther  east  are  the 
beautiful  islands  of  the  Celebes,  the  wild 
lands  of  New  Guinea,  the  Solomon  Islands, 
etc. 

Coming  back  to  the  near  view  around 
the  observer,  there  lies  the  island  of  Java. 
Below  the  site  on  which  he  stands,  on  the 
lower  shoulders  of  the  mountains,  are  the 
great  trees  of  the  Malaysian  forests.  A 
little  lower,  where  the  wide  clearings  begin, 
are  the  coffee  gardens,  which  in  their  sea- 
son are  covered  with  a  sheet  of  white  bloom 
as  beautiful  as  it  is  fragrant.  A  little  lower 
are  the  fruit  orchards  in  which  all  manner 
of  tropical  fruits  abound.  With  many  of 


10  Malaysia. 

these  the  untraveled  American  is  already 
familiar,  for  almost  everything  that  grows 
is  brought  to  the  markets  of  our  great 
cities.  But  two  of  the  special  fruits  of  the 
Malay  world  are  unknown  to  Americans. 
They  are  the  mangosteen  and  the  durian. 
The  former  is  the  size  of  an  ordinary  apple, 
and  grows  on  a  low  bushy  tree,  amidst 
whose  dark  green  leaves  the  deep-purpled 
skin  mangosteen  is  found  profusely.  The 
meat  of  the  mangosteen  is  as  white  as 
snow,  and  consists  of  pips  like  those  of  an 
orange,  compacted  together.  When  taken 
out  of  the  shell  this  meat  is  as  palatable  as 
the  very  best  hothouse  grapes. 

The  durian  is  a  fruit  of  another  order. 
It  grows  on  a  very  large  tree,  is  about  the 
size  of  a  man's  head,  and  is  covered  with 
thorny  spikes, — hence  the  name  ("durian," 
or  "the  thorny  thing").  The  shell  of  the 
durian  splits  open  into  canoe-shaped  sec- 
tions. The  meat  within  gathers  around  a 
few  large  seeds,  and  according  to  so  acute 
an  observer  as  Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  "it 
tastes  like  a  rich,  creamy  custard,  with 
wafts  of  brown  sherry  and  onion  sauce." 
There  is  one  serious  disadvantage,  how- 


Nature's  Wonderland.  11 

ever,  about  the  durian,  and  that  is,  the  odor 
belies  its  taste,  for  the  odor  suggests  de- 
cayed limburger  cheese.  And  yet  the  peo- 
ple say  it  is  the  best  fruit  that  grows. 

Amongst  these  fruit  orchards  is  a  wide 
variety  of  the  bird  life  of  the  island.  Here 
are  to  be  found  flocks  of  cockatoos  (Malay 
"kakatua,"  meaning  "old  sister"),  scarlet 
lories,  green  parrots,  and  an  occasional 
beautiful  bird  of  paradise,  with  tail  feathers 
fourteen  inches  long ;  and  above  all  perfect 
showers  of  little  paroquets  in  incessant 
motion,  little  balls  of  glistening  green  dart- 
ing from  branch  to  branch,  throwing  a 
ceaseless  shuttle  of  color  amongst  the  trees. 

A  little  lower  down,  where  water  may  be 
brought  into  use  for  irrigation,  in  the  val- 
leys are  to  be  found  the  great  rice  fields 
which  support  the  population  of  Java,  and 
the  sugar  cane,  producing  the  sugar  which 
for  so  long  a  time  was  a  commodity  of 
great  profit  to  the  Dutch  Government,  but 
which  in  these  later  days  of  subsidized 
beet-root  sugar  industries  in  other  lands 
only  makes  the  government  revenues  still 
more  difficult.  The  rice  fields  present  to 
the  eye  at  the  proper  season  one  of  the 


12  Malaysia. 

most  charming  spectacles  that  even  the 
gorgeous  East  affords.  The  fields  are  sep- 
arated from  each  other  by  low,  grass-cov- 
ered dykes.  One  stands  in  the  midst  of 
an  endless  stretch  of  green,  and  when  the 
plant  is  a  few  inches  high  and  a  soft  air 
breathes  over  it  there  are  undulations  of 
varying  green  to  delight  the  observer. 

Altogether  the  scenery  in  this  Archi- 
pelago is  beautiful  beyond  description.  One 
looks  in  the  morning  upon  a  gray  sea  with 
the  purpling  outlines  of  the  islands  around 
you,  out  against  the  slightly  flushing  sky; 
look  again  at  mid-day  and  the  shallow 
ocean  is  a  living  green,  while  the  islands 
blaze  like  pure  amethysts  in  an  emerald 
sea,  flecked  with  white  where  the  wind  dis- 
turbs the  waters.  Look  again  at  evening, 
and  in  the  crimson  light  of  the  dying  sun 
the  islands  are  ablaze,  and  the  ocean  is 
dyed  with  many  colors ;  the  trees  flame  like 
pillars  of  fire  pointing  to  the  skies  above, 
and  everywhere  there  is  outpoured  around 
you  such  a  gorgeous  scheme  of  color  as 
nature  nowhere  reproduces. 

"The  Isles  of  Greece,  the  Isles  of  Greece, 
Where  burning  Sappho  loved  and  sang." 


Nature's  Wonderland.  13 

are  exceedingly  beautiful  with  the  quiet 
beauty  of  the  ^Egean  Sea,  but  so  gorgeous 
an  outpouring  of  coloring  as  the  Malaysian 
Archipelago  presents  is  as  different  from 
any  scene  one  may  see  in  America  or  Eu- 
rope as  the  East  is  far  removed  from  the 
West.  If  the  traveling  public  was  once 
aware  of  all  the  endless  delights  and  at- 
tractions of  this  Malaysian  Archipelago, 
there  would  be  a  revolution  in  tourists' 
routes,  and  to  the  delight  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  the  Yosemite,  the  Alps  and 
the  Riviera,  the  Ganges  and  Japan,  would 
be  added  the  unique  pleasure  of  seeing  the 
unmatched  panoramas  of  physical  beauty 
which  nature  places  before  the  wondering 
gaze  of  the  travelers  amongst  these  mid- 
tropical  islands,  which  are  worthy  the  name 
by  which  they  are  designated — for  here 
surely  is  "Nature's  Wonderland." 


CHAPTER  II. 
THE  BRITISH  POSSESSIONS. 

THE  Malay  world  is  under  many  gov- 
ernments, chief  of  which  are  the  British 
and  the  Dutch.  The  British  possessions 
of  Malaysia  consist  of  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula and  the  Straits  Settlements,  which 
comprise  the  islands  of  Singapore  and  Pe- 
nang;  the  Bindings;  Province  Wellesley, 
a  part  of  the  Malay  Peninsula  over  against 
Penang ;  and  Malacca,  a  part  of  the  Penin- 
sula about  midway  between  Penang  and 
Singapore.  The  British  also  exercise  suze- 
rain power  over  the  king  of  Sarawak  in 
Borneo,  and  rule  some  of  the  neighboring 
territory  stretching  along  the  north  of  that 
great  island. 

The  Malay  Peninsula  consists  chiefly  of 
the  Federated  Malay  States,  a  govern- 
mental unit  composed  of  several  former 
Malay  principalities  which  are  now  admin- 
istered by  a  British  resident  general  living 
14 


The  British  Possessions.          15 

at  Kuala  Lumpor,  the  federal  capital,  under 
whom  British  residents  living  in  the  capital 
of  each  of  the  former  States  administer 
the  provinces  through  a  body  of  officers, 
some  appointed  from  England  and  some  se- 
lected from  the  natives  themselves. 

It  is  a  matter  for  grateful  surprise  and 
admiration  to  all  travelers  to  note  the 
splendid  development  of  these  States  under 
the  British  administration.  In  1902  the 
exports  reached  $71,000,000,  and  the  in- 
come of  the  Federation  approximated  $25,- 
000,000.  The  development  of  a  railroad 
system,  the  building  of  new  harbors,  the 
opening  up  of  the  whole  country  to  the 
mining  of  tin  and  the  growth  of  rice,  sugar, 
and  more  recently  of  Brazilian  rubber, 
tend  to  create  a  tide  of  prosperity  un- 
equaled  in  any  similar  area  of  all  the  East- 
ern world;  and  $65,000,000  worth  of  tin 
bullion  are  yearly  shipped  to  Europe  and 
America,  and  it  is  safe  to  predict  that 
within  ten  years  a  considerable  porportion 
of  the  best  rubber  of  the  world  will  come 
from  this  Peninsula.  And  while  it  is  some- 
times said  that  all  this  development  is  not 
being  brought  about  by  the  native  Malays, 


16  Malaysia. 

but  by  the  incoming  Chinese  and  Tamils 
from  India,  it  may  easily  be  shown  that  the 
Malay  himself,  in  the  establishment  of  law 
and  order,  in  his  freedom  from  petty  tribal 
wars,  and  in  the  increasing  price  of  his 
lands,  has  been  advantaged  much  beyond 
anything  that  would  have  come  to  him 
under  his  own  native  rule.  Nor  are  his 
English  co-workers  lacking  in  sympathetic 
deference  to  his  wishes,  and  in  the  utmost 
caution  against  offending  his  prejudices. 
Indeed  the  British  administrator  shows  a 
certain  partiality  for  the  Malay  which  may 
well  cause  the  friends  of  the  other  races 
ground  for  complaint.  The  Malay  is  very 
much  better  off  for  the  presence  of  tins 
active,  energetic  white  man,  towards  whom 
he  shows  such  respect  and  affectic  as 
makes  the  contact  of  the  two  people  as 
pleasant  a  sight  of  the  strong  helping  the 
weak,  and  the  capable  teaching  the  back- 
ward, as  is  to  be  found  anywhere  in  Asia. 
The  real  work  of  the  Peninsula  is  being 
done  by  Chinese  and  Tamils.  The  former 
fairly  monopolize  the  tin  mining.  They 
are  physically  and  constitutionally  harder 
working  than  any  of  the  other  peoples. 


The  British  Possessions.          17 

Over  half  a  million  of  them  have  poured 
into  this  country,  and  the  splendid  contri- 
bution they  are  making  to  its  economic 
progress  is  a  lesson  that  might  be  worth 
the  consideration  of  other  governments 
dealing  with  undeveloped  territories  in 
tropical  lands.  These  Chinese  are  free  men. 
They  find  their  own  way,  or  are  assisted 
by  their  employers  to  reach  the  mines. 
And  when  they  have  repaid  the  advance  of 
money  made  to  them,  they  work  as  they 
please  and  at  fixed  rates.  They  quickly 
learn  to  refuse  work  by  the  day  and  to  take 
it  on  some  kind  of  a  percentage  basis, 
whereby  the  hard-working  coolies  earn  any- 
where from  forty  cents  to  sixty  cents,  silver, 
per  day.  When  a  man  adds  thrift  to  his 
capacity  for  work,  he  often  becomes  a  small 
shareholder  in  the  mine,  and  amongst  the 
great  fortunes  of  the  Peninsula  are  not  a 
few  accumulated  by  men  who  began  as 
plain  mining  coolies  from  China.  Two 
wretched  evils  beset  this  hard-working 
man.  They  are  his  fondness  for  gambling 
and  opium  smoking,  and  to  both  of  these, 
unhappily,  the  government  seems  not  to 
oppose  itself.  Opportunities  for  the  free 
2 


18  Malaysia. 

use  of  the  drug  abound  everywhere,  and 
gambling  houses  are  in  all  the  towns. 
Many  a  poor  coolie  works  through  a  labor- 
ious month  only  to  end  it  in  a  debauch  of 
two  or  three  days,  in  which  all  his  hard- 
earned  money  vanishes.  What  adds  much 
to  his  temptations  are  the  absence  of  his 
wife  and  family.  But  strenuous  efforts 
are  being  made  to  induce  these  men  to  send 
for  their  people,  and  an  increasing  number 
of  them  are  beginning  to  establish  their 
homes  in  the  land  where  they  earn  their 
living.  Gradually  a  more  stable  population 
grows  up  in  the  Peninsula,  and  it  is  not 
hard  to  foresee  that  several  millions  of 
comparatively  comfortable  and  contented 
Chinese  will  be  found  here  in  the  not  dis- 
tant future,  in  a  country  administered  by 
Englishmen,  while  nominally  owned  by  the 
Malays. 

The  Tamils  are  a  people  of  South  India ; 
noisy,  exceedingly  talkative,  faithful,  de- 
vout, obedient  to  orders,  and  capable  of 
patiently  bearing  much  hardship.  To  them 
is  given  much  of  the  agricultural  labor  of 
the  land.  They  grow  the  sugar  cane,  the 
cocoanut,  the  areca-nut,  the  pepper,  and  the 


The  British  Possessions.          19 

rubber  of  the  Peninsula.  Less  enterpris- 
ing than  the  Chinese,  they  are  usually  day- 
laborers.  Accompanied  by  their  wives  and 
children  they  quickly  settle  down  in  any 
home  provided  for  them,  and  in  a  brief 
space  of  time  there  is  reproduced  in  Ma- 
laysia an  exact  miniature  of  an  Indian  vil- 
lage. On  their  first  coming  the  ties  of 
kindred  and  home  are  so  strong  upon  them 
that  they  have  a  set  purpose  to  return  as 
soon  as  they  have  saved  some  money.  But 
usually  a  few  months  in  India  persuades 
them  that  no  such  wages  and  opportunities 
for  comfort  are  to  be  had  in  the  congested 
mother  land  as  in  their  emigrant  home,  and 
a  considerable  proportion  of  them  filters 
back  to  make  their  permanent  home  in  the 
new  land.  Meanwhile  the  Malay  for  the 
most  part  cultivates  his  own  rice  fields, 
fishes  along  the  shore  of  the  sea  or  in  the 
rivers,  and  keeps  himself  carefully  secluded 
from  all  contact  with  any  of  these  incom- 
ing strangers.  Whether  in  the  end  he  will 
be  forced  into  greater  activity  to  save  him- 
self from  being  wiped  out  entirely  remains 
to  be  seen.  The  old  semi-savage  life  is 
gone  forever.  For  the  new  order  the  Malay 


20  Malaysia. 

has  mingled  feelings.  He  likes  the  white 
man  and  trusts  him.  He  is  not  unaware 
of  the  great  improvement  in  his  own  estate 
and  of  all  the  development  that  has  come 
to  his  land.  But  he  dislikes  the  intruding 
Asiatics  through  whose  labors  these  devel- 
opments have  been  made  possible.  If  by 
any  means  he  can  be  induced  or  forced  to 
undertake  labor  himself,  it  would  greatly 
rejoice  his  English  friends,  and  his  own 
fate  ultimately  would  be  less  in  question. 

The  commingling  of  these  various  races, 
the  rapid  development  of  a  narrow  stretch 
of  land  exceedingly  rich  in  its  mineral  and 
agricultural  resources,  the  changing  of  a 
rough  wilderness  to  a  land  of  plenty,  af- 
fords a  striking  tribute  to  the  governmental 
energy  and  capacity  of  the  British  race. 

The  islands  of  Singapore  and  Penang 
are  two  great  emporiums  of  trade.  Pe- 
nang, with  a  population  of  about  one  hun- 
dred thousand,  stands  over  against  Prov- 
ince Wellesley,  and  here  are  gathered  for 
export  sugar,  cocoanuts,  areca-nuts,  tapi- 
oca, etc.,  produced  on  the  main  land;  and 
from  here  are  distributed  things  necessary 
to  the  life  and  comfort  of  the  Indian  and 


The  British  Possessions.          21 

Chinese  coolies   scattered   all  through  the 
estates  and  mines. 

Singapore  is  one  of  the  islands  of  South- 
eastern Asia.  In  the  expressive  language 
of  the  Malay  it  is  the  "navel  of  the  world." 
Guarding  the  Straits  of  Sumatra,  which 
separate  the  Peninsula  from  the  Island  of 
Sumatra,  it  lies  on  the  highway  of  the 
oceans  where  all  shipping  passing  from 
East  to  West,  or  from  West  to  East,  be- 
tween the  China  Sea  and  the  Indian  Ocean 
must  call.  It  is  a  town  of  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand,  of  whom  more 
than  one-half  are  Chinese,  less  than  one- 
half  of  the  remainder  are  Tamils,  and 
the  rest  are  Malays.  But  sprinkled  amongst 
these  are  representatives  of  all  the  lands 
of  the  earth.  Here  are  to  be  found  Eng- 
lishmen, Germans,  Austrians,  Italians, 
Americans,  Greeks,  Spaniards,  etc.,  and 
here  are  all  the  tribes  of  Asia,  from  the 
slopes  of  the  Himalayas  to  Japan  in  North- 
eastern Asia.  One  may  stand  on  a  street 
corner  of  the  crowded  thoroughfares  and 
count  forty  different  nationalities  passing 
at  any  hour  of  the  day.  And  since  these 
carry  with  them  their  national  dress  and 


22  Malaysia. 

racial  peculiarities,  the  view  is  as  kaleido- 
scopic as  it  is  interesting.  The  streets  are 
thronged  with  jinrickshas  drawn  by  men, 
and  kritas  or  carriages  drawn  by  fast  mov- 
ing Malayan  ponies.  While  amid  all  the 
babel  of  sounds  and  flutter  of  color  are  heard 
the  honk  of  the  automobile  and  the  clang- 
ing of  the  electric  street  car  bells.  No  more 
picturesque  streets  are  to  be  seen  than  these 
where  East  and  West  meet,  and  where  side 
by  side  may  be  seen  the  crudest  forms  of 
primitive  life  and  rude  peoples  mingling 
with  the  elaborate  outputs  of  the  highest 
civilization.  In  the  midst  of  it  all  one 
dwells  in  perfect  security,  for  the  strong 
hand  of  a  virile  people  makes  Singapore 
as  safe  as  Boston  or  Pittsburg. 

Singapore  is  the  sixth  port  of  the  world, 
having  a  larger  tonnage  than  Liverpool  or 
Seattle,  and  it  is  the  great  distributing  cen- 
ter for  all  the  Malay  world.  Here  are 
found  banks  of  all  the  nations — English, 
French,  German,  Russian,  Italian,  Aus- 
trian, Greek,  and  American,  and  to  this 
free  port,  unvexed  by  tariff  restrictions, 
come  the  riches  of  the.  Archipelago  for 
trans-shipment  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 


The  British  Possessions.          23 

The  British  Possessions  in  Borneo  are 
inconsiderable  outside  the  kingdom  of 
Sarawak.  This  kingdom  covers  a  large 
stretch  of  territory  along  the  north  coast 
of  Borneo.  It  is  governed  by  Rajah 
Brooke,  a  romantic  figure  who  inherits  the 
kingdom  from  an  uncle,  an  adventurous 
young  man  who,  leaving  the  service  of  the 
Indian  Government,  carved  out  for  him- 
self a  wide  kingdom  amongst  the  savage 
peoples  of  this  great  island.  The  present 
Rajah  Brooke  is  now  over  seventy  years  of 
age,  but  he  is  a  very  vigorous  man  who  is 
illustrating  what  profound  advance  can  be 
made  amongst  the  wildest  people  by  a  reso- 
lute and  intelligent  administration.. 

THE:  DUTCH  INDIES. — Much  the  widest 
area  of  these  East  Indies  is  under  the  flag 
of  Holland.  The  greater  portion  of  the 
islands  of  Sumatra,  Java,  South  Borneo, 
the  Celebes,  the  Molucca  Islands,  and  West 
New  Guinea  is  owned  by  the  Dutch  Gov- 
ernment. Here  is  an  area  of  about  eight 
hundred  thousand  miles,  with  a  population 
of  about  fifty  million.  These  Dutch  Islands 
have  been  a  source  of  great  wealth  to  Hol- 
land until  recently,  but  now  increasingly 


24  Malaysia. 

the  revenues  of  the  island  show  a  steady 
deficit,  and  the  financial  situation  promises 
increasing  embarrassment  to  the  Dutch 
Government.  •'  ^^f 

Java  is  the  most  populous  and  important 
island  of  the  group.  Thirty  millions  of 
people  are  packed  into  less  than  50,000 
square  miles,  and  yet,  in  spite  of  all  criti- 
cism of  the  Dutch  Administration,  there  is 
a  higher  level  of  comfort  and  quiet  satis- 
faction in  life  amongst  these  thirty  millions 
than  is  to  be  found  anywhere  perhaps 
amongst  any  thirty  millions  in  the  East. 

The  capital  of  Java  is  Batavia,  a  city  of 
about  two  hundred  thousand  people,  and 
one  of  great  interest  to  the  traveler.  Forty 
miles  away  is  Buitenzerg,  famous  for  its 
botanical  gardens  and  as  the  residence  of 
the  Governor  General  of  the  Dutch  East 
Indies.  At  the  opposite  end  of  the  island 
is  the  great  trading  port,  Sourabaya.  A 
well  appointed  railway  connects  these  two 
ports. 

Java  is  famous  for  its  coffee  gardens. 
The  small,  round,  tight-lipped  coffee  ber- 
ries of  Java  are  eagerly  sought  for  in  all 
the  markets  of  Europe.  Coffee  culture  is 


The  British  Possessions.          25 

a  government  monopoly,  and  the  whole 
coffee  trade  of  the  island  is  removed  from 
private  enterprise. 

Sumatra  is  an  island  about  the  size  of 
France,  with  a  population  of  four  millions 
of  people.  Most  of  the  interior  is  unex- 
plored, and  the  northwest  end  of  the  island 
occupied  by  the  Achinese,  has  for  many 
years  been  devastated  by  a  continuous  war 
with  the  natives,  in  which  Holland  has 
never  been  able  to  suppress  frequent  up- 
risings. The  density  of  the  tropical  forest, 
the  profusion  of  animal  life,  the  great  num- 
ber of  snakes  and  swarming  reptiles,  make 
Sumatra  a  land  for  the  daring  hunter, 
rather  than  for  the  peaceful  tourist. 

South  Borneo  is  held  by  the  Dutch,  and 
contains  vast  resources  almost  untouched. 
The  population  is  sparse,  and  no  particular 
effort  is  being  made  to  develop  what  ought 
soon  to  be  and  must  ultimately  be,  the  hab- 
itat of  a  great  and  prosperous  people.  The 
German  possessions  in  the  Caroline  and 
Solomon  Islands,  and  a  few  comparatively 
unimportant  native  kingdoms,  form  the  re- 
mainder of  this  group. 


CHAPTER  III. 

F  MALAYSIA. 


CHINA  is  a  cup  full  to  the  brim.  Four 
hundred  and  forty  millions  of  people,  with 
their  present  methods  of  agriculture,  and 
the  comparative  absence  of  manufactories 
and  mining,  etc.,  can  scarcely  find  room 
to  live  in  the  over-populous  Empire.  On 
the  other  side  is  India,  with  over  three  hun- 
dred millions  of  people,  at  an  even  lower 
range  of  economic  development.  Where 
shall  the  overflow  of  India  and  China  be- 
take itself?  India  begins  to  send  a  rill  of 
immigration  to  South  Africa,  and  the  time 
will  come  when  a  large  Indian  population 
will  be  found  on  African  soil.  But  another 
rill  has  started  from  India  southeastward. 
Every  agitation  and  every  stir  of  intelli- 
gence tends  to  remove  from  both  the  China- 
man and  Indian  his  fear  of  traveling  to 
foreign  lands.  Both  India  and  China  are 
spilling  over  into  these  great,  fertile  islands 
26 


Peoples  of  Malaysia.  27 

of  the  Malay  Archipelago.  It  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  forecast  half-way  between  India  and 
China,  in  these  beautiful  Southern  seas, 
under  the  protection  of  the  British  and 
Dutch  flags,  the  growing  up  of  an  island 
empire  which  in  due  time  will  form  a  third 
division  not  unworthy  of  comparison  with 
its  neighbors  on  the  northeast  and  north- 
west. 

Of  the  earlier  races  of  Malaysia,  the 
most  marked  are  the  Malays  and  the  Pa- 
puans. The  aboriginal  is  probably  the 
Papuan.  He  is  an  ocean  negrito,  but  lack- 
ing in  martial  ardor,  and  refusing  to  lend 
himself  to  the  influences  of  civilizing  life, 
he  has  been  driven  from  the  sea  coast  and 
the  low  lands  to  the  less  productive  and 
more  difficult  regions  in  the  mountains. 

The  Malay  is  the  present  man  of  the 
soil.  These  are  divided  into  the  sea-going 
Malays,  the  agricultural  Malays,  and  the 
mountain  Malays.  An  opium-eating  Eng- 
lishman sketched  the  Malay  of  his  opium- 
racked  dreams  years  ago,  but  in  such 
charming  English  that  the  English  reading 
world  has  ever  since  believed  De  Quincey's 
opium  inspired  sketch  to  be  a  real  char- 


28  Malaysia. 

acterization.  The  belief  has  therefore  ob- 
tained that  the  Malay  is  cruel  and  treacher- 
ous, and  his  rating  has  been  low.  But  this 
is  not  the  man  that  lives  in  Malaysia.  The 
Malay  people  are  physically  short  of  stature 
but  stout  of  limb,  the  men  rarely  reaching 
over  four  feet  five  inches  in  height.  They 
are  stoutly  built  and  of  marked  muscular 
development;  the  face  is  broad,  the  mouth 
protrudes,  the  nose  is  small  and  slightly 
flattened,  but  little  hair  grows  on  the  face, 
and  yet  there  is  a  kindly  and  not  inex- 
pressive cast  to  the  features.  Amongst  the 
Javanese  there  are  many  beautiful  women, 
and  they  have  sometimes  been  called  "the 
jewels  of  Asia;"  petite,  with  slim  waists, 
and  heads  well  placed  on  their  shoulders, 
they  compare  very  favorably  in  appear- 
ance with  any  of  the  women  of  Asia  out- 
side of  the  high  caste  women  of  Aryan 
India. 

The  whole  population  is  greatly  given 
to  life  in  the  water,  and  it  is  no  uncommon 
thing  to  see  an  entire  Kampong,  or  village, 
swimming  in  the  river  or  in  the  ocean, 
alongside  of  which  the  village  stands. 
Babies  two  years  old  may  frequently  be 


Peoples  of  Malaysia.  29 

seen  floating  unassisted  on  the  surface  of 
the  water,  and  it  may  almost  be  declared 
an  impossibility  to  drown  a  Malay  without 
holding  him  under  the  water. 

In  disposition  the  Malay  is  a  cheery, 
but  irresolute  man.  Exceedingly  polite, 
with  a  certain  reserve  and  proud  silence, 
he  intrudes  himself  upon  no  one,  but  he 
will  receive  anything  like  a  courteous  ad- 
vance with  hospitality.  He  will  not  suffer 
his  dignity  to  be  affronted,  and  is  quick 
to  resent  insult.  But  he  is  equally  quick 
to  acknowledge  kindness,  and  is  by  no 
means  the  worst  man  in  the  world.  His 
worst  characteristics  are  a  certain  inexpli- 
cable moodiness  and  an  indisposition  for 
laborious  toil. 

The  Chinese,  who  begin  to  pour  into  this 
Archipelago,  are  mostly  from  South  China, 
but  the  invasion  is  no  longer  confined  to 
the  people  of  Canton.  Increasing  numbers 
begin  to  find  their  way  south  from  the 
Coast  Provinces  north  of  Canton.  And  as 
the  reports  of  prosperity  are  conveyed,  in- 
creasing numbers  are  found  in  every  im- 
migrant ship  finding  its  way  to  this  land  bf 
promise  that  lies  at  the  door  of  the  great 


30  Malaysia. 

Empire.  He  begins  to  bring  with  him  his 
wife  and  children,  or  to  send  for  them  as 
soon  as  he  finds  means  for  their  subsist- 
ence. He  is  a  patient,  earnest,  hard-work- 
ing man,  and  is  providing  the  greatest  of 
assets  for  the  building  of  an  Empire — will- 
ing and  intelligent  human  labor. 

The  Tamils  come  from  South  India  and 
from  Ceylon,  the  working  coolies  from  the 
former,  and  the  man  of  comparative  edu- 
cation, seeking  clerkships  and  petty  offices, 
from  the  latter.  These  are  not  as  virile  as 
the  Chinese,  nor  as  ambitious  to  strike  out 
for  themselves  in  unaccustomed  ways.  But 
they  are  a  cheerful,  patient  people,  and  in 
their  own  noisy  way  are  a  very  great  bless- 
ing to  the  undeveloped  country  in  which 
they  are  set  to  work  at  larger  wages  than 
they  could  ever  hope  to  earn  in  their  own 
congested  land. 

There  is  very  little  intercourse  amongst 
these  various  peoples,  but  under  the  strong 
hands  of  the  governments  under  which  they 
live  they  peacefully  find  their  way  to 
greater  comfort  and  often  to  affluence, 
than  would  be  possible  for  them  in  their 
own  lands.  And  so  under  these  fair,  sunny 


Peoples  of  Malaysia.  31 

skies  on  both  sides  of  the  equator  there  is 
growing  up  a  new,  young  land  composed 
of  these  various  peoples,  each  of  whom  is 
contributing  his  share  to  the  developing 
of  great  resources,  and  to  the  creation  of  a 
vast,  new  division  of  populous  Asia  which 
promises  to  be  rich  and  prosperous  beyond 
anything  that  has  yet  been  developed  on 
the  main  continent. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
MALAYSIA  METHODIST  MISSIONS. 

FROM  the  first  occupation  of  these  lands 
by  the  Portuguese,  and  later  by  the  Dutch 
and  English,  Christian  missionary  oper- 
ations have  been  steadily  maintained.  To 
the  town  of  Malacca  on  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula came  Francis  Xavier,  that  apostolic 
soul  who  carried  Christianity  from  India 
to  Japan.  Here  are  still  found  the  ruins 
of  a  Christian  church  called  by  Xavier's 
name,  and  in  this  church  is  a  tablet  to 
his  memory.  A  considerable  Roman  Cath- 
olic congregation  remains  to  this  day, 
though  it  is  without  influence  or  much 
token  of  Christian  life.  In  the  Dutch  East 
Indies  the  Dutch  missionaries  have  had 
large  success.  At  one  time  there  were 
more  Christians  in  these  islands  than  in  all 
British  India.  But  alas!  a  rationalistic 
wave  spread  over  Holland  during  the  mid- 
dle of  the  last  century,  and  the  result  has 
32 


Malaysia  Methodist  Missions.     33 

been  a  decaying  missionary  zeal,  and  a 
very  large  curtailment  of  missionary  re- 
sults. Minnehassan  in  the  north  half  of 
the  Celebes  Islands  was  at  one  time  known 
as  the  "garden  of  the  Lord,"  but  it  can 
scarcely  any  longer  be  thus  characterized. 
In  later  years  some  of  the  German  missions 
have  begun  work  with  more  than  ordinary 
success.  Particularly  in  the  Island  of  Nias, 
off  the  south  of  Sumatra,  and  on  the  ad- 
jacent coast  large  outcomes  have  been  se- 
cured. 

The  first  attempt  made  by  any  American 
mission  was  that  of  the  American  Board, 
who  sent  two  young  missionaries,  Lyman 
and  Munson,  to  evangelize  the  wild  Battaks 
of  Sumatra.  Both  these  young  men  were 
killed  by  the  Battaks,  and  it  is  said  their 
bodies  were  eaten  in  a  great  cannibal  feast. 
When  the  sad  story  was  related  to  the 
mother  of  one  of  them,  in  her  little  New 
England  home,  she  is  said  to  have  turned 
to  the  next  boy  of  the  family  and  to  have 
said,  "O,  my  son,  somebody  should  go  to 
try  and  teach  these  poor  misguided  people." 
There  were  no  further  attempts  made  to 
continue  this  mission,  but  the  Episcopalians 
3 


34  Malaysia. 

and  Presbyterians  of  England  have  pro- 
jected some  missions,  and  the  Plymouth 
Brethren  have  some  representatives  who 
are,  for  the  most  part,  confined  to  British 
Malaya.  The  most  widespread  of  these 
missions  is  that  of  the  Society  for  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel,  of  the  Anglican 
Church.  These  missions  are  under  Bishop 
Hose,  who  is  styled  the  "Bishop  of  Labuan, 
Sarawak,  and  Singapore."  He  lives  in 
Kucheng,  the  capital  of  Sarawak,  at  the 
court  of  Rajah  Brooke,  and  superintends 
successful  missions  in  the  various  lands 
where  his  missionaries  are  at  work. 

In  1884  Bishop  John  F.  Hurst,  while  on 
his  way  to  India  to  administer  the  Confer- 
ences there,  was  met  by  a  Scotch  merchant 
of  Singapore,  who  asked  why,  with  a  net- 
work of  missions  in  India,  and  correspond- 
ing work  in  China,  the  Americans  had 
utterly  neglected  the  great  and  promising 
field  that  lay  outstretched  between  the  two. 
Bishop  Hurst  was  greatly  impressed  by  the 
conversation,  and  on  reaching  Bombay  he 
eagerly  inquired  of  Dr.  Thoburn,  the  fore- 
most Methodist  missionary  of  India, 
whether  it  would  be  possible  to  project  a 


Malaysia  Methodist  Missions.     35 

mission  to  the  Malay  Islands.  Dr.  Tho- 
burn  had  wished  to  do  this  for  many  years. 
India  Methodism  had  already  leaped  across 
the  north  end  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  and 
was  planted  in  Burma,  and  now  Singapore 
stood  invitingly  at  the  southern  extremity 
of  the  same  bay.  It  was  decided  between 
them  that  such  a  mission  should  be  opened, 
but  as  it  was  without  the  authorization  of 
the  General  Missionary  Committee,  there 
were  no  funds  available  for  the  enterprise. 
This,  however,  seemed  a  minor  matter  to 
men  in  a  land  where  William  Taylor  had 
already  carried  the  cry  of  self-supporting 
missions,  and  where  station  after  station 
had  been  opened  without  any  regular  mis- 
sionary grants. 

Once  it  was  decided  that  there  should  be 
a  mission  in  Singapore,  earnest  quest  was 
made  for  the  man  to  organize  it.  The  en- 
tire list  of  the  South  India  Conference  was 
scanned,  but  there  was  no  man  that  could 
be  spared.  Until  finally  Dr.  Thoburn  sug- 
gested there  was  a  man  at  sea,  on  his  way 
from  New  York,  that  he  expected  to  take 
up  work  in  India,  whence  he  had  gone  to 
America  to  prepare  for  a  missionary  career. 


36  Malaysia. 

It  was  thought  he  might  be  spared,  and 
accordingly  the  Conference  appointment 
read,  "Singapore,  William  F.  Oldham." 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Oldhams  they  were 
told  of  the  appointment,  and  without  any 
hesitation  prepared  to  continue  their  jour- 
ney through  Calcutta,  along  the  coast  to 
Burma,  and  thence  to  Singapore.  Dr.  Tho- 
burn  was  somewhat  anxious  about  the  open- 
ing of  the  mission  without  any  resources 
excepting  those  to  be  found  on  the  field. 
He  therefore  accompanied  the  young  mis- 
sionary, and  with  him  went  Mrs.  Thoburn 
and  Miss  Julia  Batty,  a  young  missionary 
lady  who  was  something  of  a  musician. 
On  reaching  Singapore  the  whole  party 
was  hospitably  entertained  by  Mr.  Phillips, 
the  warm-hearted  and  godly  superintend- 
ent of  the  Sailors'  Home.  Through  the  in- 
fluence of  Mr.  John  Polglase,  the  use  of 
the  Town  Hall  was  secured  for  evangel- 
istic services,  and  on  a  Sunday  morning 
in  February,  1885,  the  first  service  was  held 
with  an  audience  of  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  persons  of  varying  nationalities,  who 
were  all  held  together  by  the  common  tie 
of  the  English  language.  Dr.'  Thoburn  an- 


Malaysia  Methodist  Missions.     37 

nounced  his  text,  the  text  of  the  first  ser- 
mon preached  in  the  Malaysia  Mission  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  It  was, 
"Not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  My 
Spirit  saith  the  Lord,"  and  as  the  earnest 
speaker  made  the  statement  that  it  would 
not  be  by  the  power  of  human  eloquence, 
nor  by  the  might  of  any  mere  human 
agency,  but  by  the  movement  of  God's 
Spirit  upon  men's  hearts,  that  many  of 
those  present  would  be  convicted  of  their 
sins  and  many  converted  to  God,  the  deep 
silence  and  fixed  attention  of  the  hearers 
indicated  that  the  speaker's  words  were 
not  going  amiss.  Evening  after  evening 
the  services  continued,  the  preaching  was 
pungent  and  practical.  After  a  few  even- 
ings the  speaker  called  for  seekers  of  re- 
ligion, and  immediately  the  strange  sight 
was  seen  of  a  Methodist  "mourners'  bench" 
filled  with  men  and  women  seeking  the 
Lord  for  the  pardon  of  their  sins,  the 
cleansing  of  their  lives,  and  for  power  to 
do  God's  will. 

Out  of  this  company  of  reclaimed  and 
converted  men  and  women  a  Church  was 
organized,  and  W.  F.  Oldham  was  ap- 


38  Malaysia. 

pointed  pastor.  It  was  but  a  little  com- 
pany, but  their  hearts  were  full  of  warmth 
and  zeal,  and  they  looked  the  future  cour- 
ageously in  the  face  and  went  on  to  pro- 
claim the  message  that  was  theirs  to  give 
to  the  people.  After  ten  days  Dr.  Tho- 
burn  and  his  party  returned,  but  Missionary 
Oldham  and  his  wife  remained,  and 
through  the  English  speaking  people  the 
Church  which  had  been  gathered  from 
amongst  them  began  to  do  what  it  could 
to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  non-Christian 
population  of  that  island.  Happily  the 
pastor  did  not  consider  himself  merely  a 
pastor  to  a  small  congregation,  but  rather 
as  a  herald  to  the  people.  He  made  it  his 
business,  therefore,  in  every  possible  way 
to  acquaint  himself  with  his  surroundings ; 
he  studied  the  Malay  language  and  the 
ways  of  the  Chinese  and  Tamils,  and  how 
to  approach  them. 

In  Singapore  many  of  the  Chinese  are 
exceedingly  prosperous,  and  are  amongst 
the  chief  merchants  of  that  great  city. 
Mr.  Oldham  became  the  tutor  of  one  of 
these  gentlemen,  and  with  Mrs.  Oldham 
opened  a  morning  school  for  the  teaching 


Malaysia  Methodist  Missions.     39 

of  English  to  the  sons  of  other  Chinese 
merchants.  They  also  opened  a  school  for 
the  children  of  English  residents,  and  soon 
a  great  many  young  people  were  brought 
under  their  influence.  When  the  Chinese 
gentlemen  of  Singapore  saw  these  mis- 
sionaries earnestly  pouring  out  their  lives 
for  those  who  were  around  them,  some  of 
them  came  forward  and  proposed  to  build 
a  schoolhouse  at  a  cost  of  $6,000.  In  the 
new  premises  the  school  immediately  began 
to  enlarge,  and  at  the  end  of  the  mission- 
ary's third  year  a  self-supporting  school 
numbering  between  two  hundred  and  three 
hundred  lads — Chinese,  Tamils,  Malays, 
English,  etc. — was  in  full  operation,  while 
alongside  of  the  school  there  stood  an  Eng- 
lish church,  and  at  a  distance  of  half  a 
mile  was  a  small  building  in  which  preach- 
ing in  Tamil  and  in  Malay  was  carried  on 
several  times  a  week,  and  the  foundations 
were  laid  of  what  has  now  become  the 
Malaysia  Annual  Conference,  from  which 
the  Philippine  Islands  Mission  Conference 
is  a  branch. 

The  whole  record  of  those  earlier  days 
only  demonstrates  that  with  an  earnest  and 


40  Malaysia. 

active  agency  missions  may  be  planted  al- 
most anywhere  without  large  subsidies 
from  home;  while  the  further  history  of 
the  Mission,  on  the  other  hand,  proves  that 
if  these  beginnings  are  to  be  carried  on  to 
successful  enlargement  and  to  anything  like 
a  wide  ministry  to  the  needs  of  actual  non- 
Christians,  the  Church 'at  home  must  come 
generously  to  the  relief  of  hard-working 
missionaries  abroad. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tion of  "self-supporting  missions,"  though 
it  would  not  be  difficult  to  demonstrate 
that  missions  in  any  community  where  a 
number  of  nominal  European  or  American 
Protestants  are  to  be  found,  may  very  safely 
be  left  to  the  resources  developed  on  the 
ground ;  but  that  missions  amongst  non- 
Christian  races  can  not  go  very  far  with- 
out being  obliged  to  look  for  financial  help 
from  the  home  land.  And  indeed  if  it  were 
not  so,  how  could  the  great  body  of  our 
home  membership  "preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature?"  That  high  privilege 
would  then  become  the  monopoly  of  a 
handful  of  men  and  women  who  actually 
go  forth  as  the  messengers  of  God,  while 


Malaysia  Methodist  Missions.     41 

the  great  mass  of  the  Christian  Church 
would  have  no  outlet  for  its  love  to  all 
peoples  of  other  lands,  nor  any  opportunity 
to  serve  them  in  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
It  ought  never  be  forgotten  that  foreign 
missions  is  not  merely  an  obligation,  but 
a  high  privilege.  Those  who  are  minis- 
tered to  are  served,  but  those  who  minister 
are  also  afforded  opportunity  for  which  all 
true  Christly  hearts  are  thankful. 


CHAPTER  V. 
THE  SPREAD  OF  METHODIST  MISSIONS. 

THE  first  missionaries  of  the  Board  to 
join  the  Oldhams  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bond, 
but  ill-health  soon  removed  them  from  the 
field.  Then  came  the  Munsons  from  Ohio, 
and  Dr.  and  Mrs.  B.  F.  West,  from  In- 
diana. Both  of  these  began  their  career  by 
teaching  in  the  Anglo-Chinese  school,  and 
spent  many  useful  years  serving  the  chil- 
dren in  the  school  and  the  families  to  which 
they  belonged.  It  may  be  well  to  here  re- 
late the  place  taken  by  the  school  work 
of  the  Mission  in  these  lands. 

The  resident  Chinese,  some  of  whom  are 
in  the  third  and  fourth  generation,  in  the 
Straits  Settlements  and  on  the  Malay  Pen- 
insula, are  called  "babas."  Living  under 
the  British  flag  they  have  become  faithful 
and  loyal  British- subjects.  Many  of  them 
have  grown  wealthy  as  traders,  for  the 
42 


Spread  of  Methodist  Missions.    43 

Chinaman  has  a  commercial  bent  and  ca- 
pacity which  in  the  long  run  will  put  him 
amongst  the  chief  traders  of  the  world. 
The  Babas  have  largely  ceased  to  speak 
Chinese,  but  have  taken  on  the  Malay 
tongue,  which  however,  on  their  lips  has 
suffered  much  in  its  purity,  and  has  gradu- 
ally come  to  be  a  distinct  dialect  known  as 
the  "Baba  Malay,"  which  consists  of  many 
Malay  words  with  some  Chinese  and  Eng- 
lish mixed  in.  The  refinements  of  Malay 
colloquialisms  are  utterly  neglected,  and  yet 
a  simple  but  effective  instrument  of  speech 
has  been  created.  The  Babas  are  a  pro- 
gressive body  of  men,  who  while  they  retain 
many  of  these  Chinese  traditions,  have  been 
largely  emancipated  from  the  superstitions 
and  ceremonies  which  hamper  life  in  China. 
Their  very  dress  indicates  the  evolution 
through  which  they  are  passing,  for  while 
they  retain  the  loose  Chinese  silk  trousers, 
they  wear  a  short,  Malay  under-coat,  with 
a  short  silk  over-coat;  and  while  retaining 
for  the  most  part  the  queue,  they  cover 
their  heads  with  English  felt  hats.  They 
are  amongst  the  keen  and  successful  trad- 
ers, miners  and  planters  of  all  this  region, 


44  Malaysia. 

and  the  whole  country  is  benefited  much 
by  their  enterprise  and  shrewd  initiative. 
Such  men,  of  course,  eagerly  desire  edu- 
cation for  their  children,  while  in  all  mat- 
ters religious  they  are  hospitable  beyond 
most  Asiatics. 

When  Mr.  Oldham  projected  an  Anglo- 
Chinese  school  he  was  providing  for  a  want 
which  was  felt,  and  in  the  supplying  of 
which  he  was  most  nobly  helped.  The  Gov- 
ernment provides  some  schools,  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  some  others,  but  there  is 
considerable  opportunity  for  still  another 
school  system  in  which  clear  ideas  of  duty 
and  morals,  and  right  relations  to  God  and 
men,  shall  be  consistently  taught.  Such 
schools  have  since  sprung  up  in  most  of 
the  leading  stations  of  the  Mission.  The 
Anglo-Chinese  school  at  Singapore,  under 
the  admirable  leadership  of  such  principals 
as  those  who  followed  Mr.  Oldham, — 
Kelso,  Banks,  Lyons,  Buchanan,  and 
Pease, — has  gone  from  strength  to  strength 
until  now  it  numbers  one  thousand  students, 
with  a  boarding  department  of  nearly  100. 
And  the  entire  institution  pays  its  own  bills 
without  any  help  whatever  from  the  Mis- 


Spread  of  Methodist  Missions.    45 

sionary  Society.  When,  some  years  ago,  a 
New  York  Episcopalian  rector  visited  Sin- 
gapore, he  found  this  school  and  noted  his 
pleasure  and  appreciation  in  an  article  in 
the  Outlook,  in  which  he  very  felicitously 
described  "that  school  in  the  corner  of 
Asia."  Similar  schools  have  since  been 
planted  by  Dr.  B.  F.  West  in  Penang,  where 
now  under  the  able  leadership  of  J.  F. 
Pykett,  excellent  work  is  being  done  in  the 
"Wood  Institute,"  erected  by  the  generous 
gift  of  Capt.  John  Wood  of  Pittsburg. 
This  school  has  more  than  seven  hun- 
dred lads,  mostly  Chinese.  At  Ipoh,  Dr. 
Luering,  with  the  splendid  help  of  Mr.  Foo 
Choo  Choon,  a  wealthy  Chinese  gentleman, 
has  created  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  se- 
ries of  school  buildings  in  the  Mission, 
which  are  now  conducted  by  Rudledge  and 
Beaumont;  the  latter,  himself  a  product  of 
the  Mission,  enrolls  over  four  hundred  pu- 
pils. At  Kuala  Lumpor,  the  federal  capi- 
tal of  the  Malay  States,  Missionary  W.  E. 
Horley,  the  presiding  elder,  has  succeeded 
in  building  a  school  at  a  cost  of  $15,000 
(Straits  money)  and  filling  it  with  nearly 
five  hundred  students  without  any  expense 


46  Malaysia. 

to  the  society.  All  these  schools  pay  their 
own  bills,  including  the  salaries  of  ten  mis- 
sionary teachers.  There  is  sometimes  a  dis- 
position to  question  the  utility  of  so  wide 
an  educational  agency  in  so  small  a  Mis- 
sion. But  it  should  be  remembered  that 
these  teaching  missionaries  would  not  be 
in  the  field  at  all  if  it  were  not  for  the 
schools.  And  that  every  one  of  them  is  en- 
gaged in  some  work  or  other  directly  mis- 
sionary outside  of  the  school-room.  One 
of  them  is  a  presiding  elder,  four  of  them 
are  preaching  in  the  vernacular,  and  the  re- 
mainder of  them  have  the  opportunity  to 
learn  the  native  languages,  and  always,  of 
course,  the  rare  chance  to  impress  upon 
the  minds  of  over  three  thousands  youths 
the  things  that  stand  first  in  life. 

When  investigating  in  Java  where  to 
plant  the  new  Mission  which  has  recently 
been  begun  there,  Mr.  Denyes,  the  mission- 
ary, accompanied  by  Presiding  Elder  West, 
found  groups  of  Anglo-Chinese  school  boys 
scattered  through  all  the  chief  cities  of 
Java,  and  in  every  case  these  boys  received 
them  with  a  warmth  of  welcome  and  a 
readiness  to  give  information  and  help 


Spread  of  Methodist  Missions.    47 

which  made  the  Java  tour  a  great  deal  more 
pleasant  and  successful  than  it  would  other- 
wise have  been.  Constantly  the  missionary 
learns  of  his  boys,  who  years  after  they 
have  left  the  school,  have  so  profited  by 
the  teachings  they  have  received,  that  they 
have  turned  to  God  and  carried  the  mes- 
sage to  people  in  far  off  parts,  otherwise 
unreached  by  any  missionary,  while  more 
directly  from  the  school  itself  we  have  re- 
ceived some  of  the  choicest  Christians  to 
be  found  in  all  the  land.  The  schools  have 
by  no  means  impeded  the  Mission.  They 
have  been  a  distinct  addition  to  the  evan- 
gelizing agencies  in  the  field,  and  since  they 
pay  their  own  bills  the  attitude  to  be  as- 
sumed towards  them  should  be  one  of  cor- 
dial sympathy  and  good-will. 

The  school  at  Singapore  greatly  needs 
strengthening  in  the  senior  departments.  If 
two  professorships  could  be  endowed  Mr. 
Pease  would  be  relieved  from  the  constant 
anxiety  to  make  the  school  pay  its  own 
way,  and  the  beginnings  of  a  college  would 
be  made  possible.  With  the  constant 
stream  of  young  men  passing  through  this 
school,  many  of  them  of  the  better  fam- 


48  Malaysia. 

ilies  and  therefore  soon  to  be  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  life  around  them,  it  may  not 
immodestly  be  said  that  the  Anglo-Chinese 
school  at  Singapore,  strengthened  by  a 
small  endowment,  for  which  it  waits,  will 
as  profoundly  affect  the  life  of  Southeast- 
ern Asia  as  the  Roberts  College  at  Con- 
stantinople, or  the  great  Presbyterian 
school  at  Beirut  affects  Southeastern  Eu- 
rope and  Norwestern  Asia.  An  investment 
of  $50,000  by  some  man  who  sees  the  value 
of  education  and  the  profound  importance 
of  putting  clear,  ethical  thinking  and  spir- 
itual ideas  »into  the  minds  of  the  coming 
leaders  of  these  young  lands,  will  produce 
incalculable  results  for  all  time. 

These  schools  have  produced  a  desire  in 
many  other  centers  to  have  similar  work 
begun,  and  indeed  it  will  be  seen  farther 
on  that  our  entry  into  the  Island  of  Sumatra 
is  the  direct  result  of  our  school  system. 
Take  it  all  in  all  it  is  doubtful  whether  any 
Mission  anywhere  in  all  Asia  has  so  great 
an  educational  prestige,  and  so  effective 
and  yet  inexpensive  a  chain  of  schools  as 
those  of  Malaysia,  in  which  four  thousand 
children  are  taught  in  a  number  of  schools, 


Spread  of  Methodist  Missions.    49 

whose  combined  property  aggregates  at  a 
value  of  over  $60,000  (gold). 

Alongside  of  these  boys'  schools  there 
has  grown  up  a  network  of  small  girls' 
schools.  There  is  not,  as  yet,  any  great 
demand  for  female  education,  but  that 
there  should  be  as  much  as  there  is,  must 
be  marked  to  the  credit  of  the  aspiring 
Chinese  and  Tamils  of  Malaysia.  The  girls' 
schools  are  necessarily  not  self-supporting. 
When  the  desire  for  the  education  of 
women  grows  as  keen  as  it  is  for  men, 
there  will  be  time  enough  to  expect  the 
schools  to  pay  their  own  way.  Meanwhile 
it  has  only  been  by  most  earnest  and  in- 
telligent effort  that  a  chain  of  schools  has 
been  created,  in  which  about  one  thousand 
girls  are  being  educated  each  year.  Per- 
haps the  most  interesting  of  these  is  one 
recently  founded  in  Malacca  by  Mrs.  Shel- 
labear  and  Miss  Pugh.  What  gives  it  pe- 
culiar interest  is  this.  The  children  are 
taught  to  read  the  Romanized  Baba  Malay, 
and  not  the  English  or  the  Arabic  writing. 
The  consequence  is  that  as  soon  as  they 
learn  a  few  Roman  letters  they  are  able  to 
read  a  language  which  they  speak  in  their 
4 


50  Malaysia. 

own  homes.  The  words  they  vocalize  are, 
therefore,  full  of  meaning  to  their  ears,  and 
they  carry  these  reading  lessons  home  with 
them  to  the  great  delight  of  mothers  and 
grandmothers,  who  can  hear  the  children 
read  in  their  own  language  things  they 
themselves  have  never  heard  before.  The 
experiment  works  so  well  that  the  Mission 
contemplates  abandoning  the  regular  gov- 
ernmental code  and  striking  out  for  itself 
a  course  of  vernacular  studies  to  be  fol- 
lowed much  later,  if  at  all,  by  the  study  of 
English.  This  will  mean  the  loss  of  gov- 
ernment help,  but  it  promises  to  bring  to 
the  women  what  we  greatly  desire,  the 
early  and  intelligent  reading  of  religious 
literature  in  the  language  they  speak  in 
their  own  homes.  And  since  it  is  a  far 
cry  to  any  time  when  women  will  be  in 
competition  for  any  public  position  in 
which  the  knowledge  of  English  will  be 
demanded,  it  seems  better  to  give  them  ac- 
cess to  the  literature  that  is  to  their  hand 
and  easy  to  comprehend  rather  than  to 
put  all  of  them  to  the  very  difficult  task 
of  mastering  the  complex  English  lan- 
guage. 


Spread  of  Methodist  Missions.    51 

Among  those  who  have  been  most  help- 
ful and  to  whom  gratitude  to  the  Mission 
must  always  be  felt  are  the  earliest  friends 
of  our  schools, — Mr.  Tan  Keong  Saik  and 
Mr.  Tan  Jaik  Kim,  with  a  multitude  of 
others  whose  names  are  preserved  in  the 
records  of  the  schools  and  in  the  archives 
of  the  Mission. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
EVANGELISTIC  MISSIONS. 

WHILE)  much  energy  has  been  put  into 
the  school  work,  the  appropriations  of  the 
Missionary  Society  have  been  spent  exclu- 
sively in  evangelistic  work. 

.  The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  all  evan- 
gelistic enterprises  are  very  marked.  The 
land  literally  bristles  with  them.  They  are 
chiefly : 

First.  The  difficulty  of  languages.  The 
little  handful  of  missionaries  is  already 
preaching  in  these  islands  in  no  less  than 
fourteen  different  dialects.  There  are  eight 
dialects  of  Chinese,  and  the  people  of  any 
one  rarely  understand  any  other,  for  the 
Chinaman  unlike  the  Indian,  seems  to  have 
difficulty  in  getting  other  tongues  than  his 
own.  Then  there  is  the  Malay,  the  Baba 
Malay  (a  distinct  variant),  the  Tamil,  the 
Javanese,  the  Sibu,  and  the  Dyak. 

Second.     There  is  the  migratory  char- 
52 


Evangelistic  Missions.  53 

acter  of  the  population.  The  Chinese  come 
and  go.  The  Tamils  come  and  go.  And 
sometimes  after  a  year's  earnest  and  suc- 
cessful work  a  native  pastor  will  come  to 
Conference  and  report  but  small  addition 
to  the  membership.  Said  an  earnest,  young 
preacher  at  the  last  session  of  the  Malaysia 
Conference :  "I  have  worked  earnestly ;  I 
have  prayed  much;  I  have  preached  every 
day  on  the  streets,  and  several  times  on 
Sunday  in  the  homes ;  I  have  prayed  with 
men  and  wept  over  sinners ;  and  God  in 
great  mercy  has  given  me  during  the  year 
fifteen  souls,  of  whom  ten  were  baptized, 
and  five  went  away  before  they  were  bap- 
tized taking  letters  with  them  to  the  mis- 
sionary in  China.  But,  alas !  no  one  of 
the  fifteen  is  left  on  my  station.  May  God 
keep  them  wherever  they  are.  I  must  go 
to  work  again  this  year  to  find  more  con- 
verts." This  experience  is  not  a  singular 
one.  At  least  thirty  per  cent  of  the-  congre- 
gations move  every  year.  It  therefore  means 
much  that  the  Conference  last  year  reported 
an  advance  of  three  hundred  members,  (a 
gain  of  eighteen  per  cent),  as  large  an  in- 
crease, per  cent,  as  is  to  be  found  in  any 


54  Malaysia. 

except  two  of  the  Asiatic  Mission  fields, 
while  the  total  membership  is  only  eight 
hundred  behind  West  China,  five  hundred 
behind  Liberia,  and  twice  as  many  again 
as  South  Japan.  In  the  native  Churches 
the  amount  of  self-help  is  far  beyond 
the  usual.  Several  circuits  are  self-sup- 
porting, both  amongst  the  Chinese  and 
the  Tamils.  And  such  strong  organiza- 
tions as  the  Tamil  Church  in  Kuala  Lum- 
por,  under  Pastor  Abraham,  and  the  Chi- 
nese Churches  in  Penang,  Ipoh,  Kuala 
Lumpore  and  Singapore,  are  almost  if  not 
altogether  self-supporting. 

Another  difficulty  in  the  absence  of  fam- 
ily life  among  the  immigrants.  The  Ma- 
lays, a  Mohammedan  people,  are  exceed- 
ingly shy  and  difficult  to  approach.  It  is 
hoped  that  a  missionary  may  soon  be  set 
apart  distinctively  for  the  Malays. 

To  the  writer  the  wonder  is  that  such 
results  have  been  secured.  And  knowing 
widely  as  he  does  the  Missions  of  most  of 
the  Church,  he  has  no  hesitation  in  record- 
ing the  statement  that  a  more  earnest,  in- 
telligent, faithful  body  of  men  than  com- 
prise the  Malaysia  Conference  is  not  to  be 


Evangelistic  Missions.  55 

found  in  any  land.  In  the  midst  of  all 
the  feverish  activities  of  a  new  land,  where 
wages  are  higher  and  dissipation  more  en- 
ticing, where  family  life  is  scarce  and  mi- 
gratory habits  are  upon  the  men,  they  have 
forced  attention  by  their  zeal,  have  com- 
pelled a  hearing  by  their  earnestness,  and 
have  laid  a  detaining  hand  upon  hundreds 
who  would  not  have  been  affected  except 
by  the  most  intense  and  earnest  effort. 
These  men  and  women  are  engaged  in  most 
difficult  work  in  a  trying  climate,  where 
the  children  grow  pale  and  anaemic,  the 
women  have  difficulty  in  keeping  their 
health,  and  the  men  become  frail  and  worn 
to  the  bone.  With  all  these  disadvan- 
tages, they  are  giving  a  splendid  account 
of  themselves,  and  it  is  only  their  due  that 
their  more  comfortably  placed  brethren, 
both  at  home  and  in  other  Missions,  should 
afford  them  a  tender  sympathy,  a  large  re- 
gard, and  profound  esteem.  It  is  a  gal- 
lant band  that  serves  the  Church  at  the 
Equator,  and  the  Church  at  home  should 
on  all  suitable  occasions  show  its  apprecia- 
tion and  good  will  to  these  self-sacrificing 
sons  and  daughters. 


CHAPTER   VII. 
A  ROMANTIC  EXPERIMENT. 

AMONGST  the  methods  being  used  for  the 
evangelization  of  this  field  is  that  of  the 
importation  of  Chinese  colonists  in  groups 
under  the  tutelage  of  the  missionaries.  No 
more  romantic  experiment  has  ever  been 
tried  than  that  by  which,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Missionary  Luering,  the  govern- 
ment of  Perak  (one  of  the  Federated  Malay 
States)  has  imported  a  band  of  over  six 
hundred  Chinese  colonists,  gathered  mainly 
from  the  Foochow  Province  in  China.  Dr. 
Luering  went  to  China  under  contract  with 
the  Perak  Government  and  put  before  the 
poor  Chinese  agriculturists  of  the  Fukhien 
Province  the  offer  of  free  land  without  tax 
for  five  years,  with  a  loan  to  provide  pas- 
sage for  whole  families.  Under  his  direc- 
tion between  six  hundred  and  eight  hun- 
dred persons,  in  family  groups,  were 
56 


A  Romantic  Experiment.        57 

thus  imported  to  Perak  and,  settled  at 
Sitiawan,  where  the  colony,  after  its  in- 
itial difficulties,  is  succeeding  beyond  the 
largest  hopes  of  those  concerned.  The 
colonists  are  engaged  in  growing  rice  and 
rubber,  raising  pigs,  etc.,  and  the  State  is 
receiving  from  them  the  beginnings  of  that 
most  needed  of  all  commodities, — settled 
families  of  thrifty  habits  and  frugal  ways. 
It  may  safely  be  expected  that  within  ten 
years  a  steady  stream  of  immigration  of 
whole  families  of  agriculturalists  will  find 
its  way  to  the  rich  lands  of  the  Malay 
Peninsula.  The  missionaries  stand  ready 
to  help  these  strangers  and  to  firmly  plant 
the  Christian  Church  amongst  them  as  they 
come.  It  will  easily  be  seen  that  Method- 
ism has  here  a  great  prospective  work, 
towards  which  the  governmental  authorities 
are  gracious,  and  by  which  large  social 
benefit,  as  well  as  religious  help,  is  ren- 
dered to  these  future  makers  of  a  new,  rich 
land. 

Still  more  interesting  is  a  similar  experi- 
ment in  Borneo,  under  the  regime  of  Rajah 
Brooke,  of  Sarawak.  Bishop  Warne  one 
day  heard  of  a  ship-load  of  Chinese  immi- 


58  Malaysia. 

grants  on  their  way  to  Borneo  from  South 
China.  These  were  nominally  Methodists 
under  the  leadership  of  a  Methodist  local 
preacher.  They  were  going  to  find  a  new 
land  of  promise.  The  bishop  did  not  hesi- 
tate a  moment.  He  purchased  a  ticket, 
went  on  board  the  steamer,  and  accompan- 
ied these  strangers  to  their  new  home.  He 
was  received  with  tumulous  welcome,  and 
his  presence  greatly  heartened  the  wander- 
ers on  their  fateful  journey.  This  colony 
was  planted  on  the  banks  of  the  noble 
Re jang  River,  about  sixty  miles  from  the 
mouth,  on  the  Island  of  Sibu,  and  the  neigh- 
boring banks.  The  river  here  is  still  a  mile 
wide,  with  low  banks,  but  the  Island  of 
Sibu  lifts  itself  well  out  of  the  water  and 
is  the  chief  trading  point  on  the  river.  The 
soil  among  the  banks  is  heavy  black  loam, 
wonderfully  rich  in  farming  possibilities. 
On  both  sides  dense  forests  stretch  away 
from  the  river  to  the  hills,  and  in  these 
forests  are  found  bands  of  wandering 
Dyaks,  who  have  an  evil  repute  as  head- 
hunters.  The  strong  hand  of  Rajah 
Brooke,  however,  keeps  this  broad  valley 
in  comparative  peace,  and  so  far  no  casu- 


A  Romantic  Experiment.         59 

alty  has  happened  to  any  of  our  Chinese 
immigrants. 

The  early  difficulties  of  this  colony,  far 
removed  as  it  is  from  all  help,  were  even 
greater  than  those  in  Malaya.  But  ever 
since  there  was  sent  them  a  resident  mis- 
sionary and  his  wife,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  M. 
Hoover,  the  colony  has  thriven,  and  gives 
promise  of  being  a  most  flourishing  center 
of  Chinese  immigration  to  the  capacious 
lands  of  Borneo.  Already  pepper  gardens, 
great  rice  fields,  rubber  ranches,  and  cocoa- 
nut  groves  begin  to  appear,  and  the  future 
of  the  colony  seems  as  bright  as  human 
hope  might  wish  for.  It  is  confidently  pre- 
dicted that  in  this  Rejang  basin  there  will 
ultimately  be  several  millions  of  prosperous 
Chinese  families  with  all  the  development 
that  comes  from  the  labor  of  this  thrifty 
and  hardy  race.  It  is  the  joy  of  the  Mis- 
sion that  from  the  beginning  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  has  been  preached  and  the 
principles  of  this  Gospel  very  largely  enter 
into  the  nascent  life  of  this  Bornean  State. 

Along  side  of  the  Chinese  in  Borneo  are 
the  Malays  and  the  wilder  tribes  of  the 
land,  the  Sibus  and  the  Dyaks.  These  wild 


60  Malaysia. 

children  of  nature  are  already  beginning  to 
be  attracted  by  the  resident  missionary.  The 
Dyak  is  not  as  shy  and  difficult  of  approach 
as  he  has  been.  They  live  in  large  family 
groups  under  chiefs ;  each  group  builds  a 
long,  narrow  house  raised  high  above  the 
land  on  posts;  against  the  house  leans  a 
dead  tree  notched  to  permit  the  bare-footed 
inhabitants  to  easily  run  up  and  down.  The 
house  is  sub-divided  into  smaller  rooms 
with  an  enclosed  veranda  running  in  front 
of  all  of  them.  On  this  veranda,  opposite 
each  doorway,  is  the  fire-place,  where  each 
family's  meals  are  cooked.  Above  the  fire- 
place hangs  a  cradle  of  knotted  rope,  and 
in  this  net  are  held  the  heads  of  men  taken 
off  the  shoulders  of  his  enemies  by  the  man 
who  inhabits  the  room  with  his  family. 
These  heads  are  continually  being  smoked 
over  the  fire,  and  present  a  very  gruesome 
sight  to  any  one  who,  for  the  first  time,  ex- 
amines them.  These  bundles  of  heads 
grow  sometimes  up  towards  one  hundred, 
and  amongst  them  may  be  found  those  of 
little  children  and  women.  Indeed,  the 
Dyak  theory  is  that  a  child's  head  betokens 
a  high  order  of  courage  on  the  part  of  the 


A  Romantic  Experiment.        61 

one  who  takes  it,  because  to  secure  it  he 
must  have  exposed  himself  to  the  attack 
of  the  family.  What  makes  the  miserable 
custom  continue  is,  that  the  Dyak  woman 
declines  to  marry  a  man  unless  he  proves 
his  prowess  by  the  hanging  of  heads  before 
the  chamber  to  which  he  proposes  to  take 
his  bride. 

These  Dyaks  are  exceedingly  stout, 
well-built  men  of  small  stature,  with  their 
bodies  profusely  tatooed  and  wholly  uncov- 
ered except  for  a  breech-clout.  They  wear 
their  hair  hanging  over  the  forehead,  cut 
short  to  keep  it  out  of  the  eyes,  but  plen- 
tifully greased  and  smoothed  down  to  a 
fine  surface.  With  all  the  absence  of 
clothes,  the  Dyak  is  a  great  dandy,  and 
spends  much  time  in  looking  at  himself  in 
the  little  looking-glass  which  the  Chinese 
traders  have  carried  up  into  the  Dyak 
country. 

The  women  are  clothed  in  bark  cloth,  a 
single  stretch  of  which,  reaching  from  the 
waist  to  the  knee,  barely  meets  across  the 
front  of  the  person.  Above  the  waist  she 
wears  nothing  but  a  few  circles  of  copper 
wire  wound  around  the  person.  She  is  by 


62  Malaysia. 

no  means  an  attractive  body  to  look  at, 
though  the  little  girls  are  not  lacking  in  a 
certain  lithe  lissomeness. 

Mrs.  Hoover  reports  that  these  Dyaks 
are  singularly  susceptible  to  music,  and 
that  she  often  has  crowds  of  them  listening 
to  her  play  a  little  American  organ,  and 
that  the  faces  manifestly  show  a  response 
to  the  character  of  the  music  played.  She 
declares  that  she  can  get  them  almost  into 
a  dance  by  playing  r^g-time  music,  and 
that  on  the  other  hand,  a  grave  seriousness 
shows  itself  when  the  time  of  the  music  is 
changed. 

The  missionaries  are  earnestly  studying 
the  Dyak  tongue,  and  a  feeling  of  friend- 
liness begins  to  grow  between  them  and 
their  wild  neighbors.  They  expect  to  see 
some  of  these  children  of  the  woods 
brought  under  regular  Christian  teaching 
and  to  add  to  the  membership  of  the 
Church  new  trophies  to  the  power  of  that 
Divine  Lord,  who  is  able  to  subdue  to  him- 
self the  loftiest  imaginations  that  lift  them- 
selves against  Him,  and  yet  to  bring  to  His 
feet  these  poorest  and  wildest  of  the  chil- 
dren of  men. 

The  work  in  Borneo  should  be  strength- 


A  Romantic  Experiment.         63 

ened.  Another  missionary  couple  should  be 
stationed  at  Kuching,  the  capital  at  Sara- 
wak, and  at  least  two  ladies  should  be  sent 
to  the  help  of  the  Hoovers,  where  the  lone- 
liness of  Mrs.  Hoover  (four  days'  steamer 
journey  from  the  next  white  woman)  ought 
not  much  longer  to  be  continued.  It  is 
true  that  everywhere  the  appeal  is  for  in- 
creased agencies  to  overtake  the  needs  that 
abound,  but  so  romantic  a  Mission  as  this 
in  Borneo,  and  one  which  has  so  firm  a 
hold  on  the  future,  should  receive  more 
than  ordinary  attention  from  those  who 
direct  the  missionary  activities  of  the 
Church.  Some  philanthropist  who  desires 
to  bless  unborn  generations  could  scarcely 
do  better  than  to  erect  and  endow  a  small 
industrial  school  in  the  Rejang  Valley, 
which  would  be  the  training-place  for  the 
industrial  leaders  of  a  people  who  are  being 
born  into  a  thriving  community.  Thirty 
thousand  dollars  invested  in  Borneo  would 
provide  a  fountain  of  perennial  helpfulness 
whose  influence  is  beyond  computation. 
Things  here  are  in  our  hands  as  servants 
of  God.  Let  it  be  proven  that  we  can  be 
trusted  to  render  the  most  efficient  service. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
JAVA. — A   PROVIDENTIAL   MISSION. 

IN  1904  the  Mission  opened  a  new  sta- 
tion in  Java.  The  story  is  another  of  those 
missionary  romances  in  which  the  Malaysia 
Conference  has  been  so  prolific.  J.  R. 
Denyes  returned  to  America  on  his  first 
furlough  from  Singapore.  He  went  with 
a  deep  impression  upon  his  mind,  born  of  a 
close  study  of  the  situation,  that  the  Mis- 
sion should  extend  to  Java,  that  populous 
Island,  with  a  stable  population,  which  is 
the  chief  pearl  of  the  Dutch  possessions. 
Missionary  Oldham  sixteen  years  before 
had  visited  Java  with  the  earnest  desire  to 
send  workers  there,  but  he  found  things  un- 
propitious.  The  missionary  bodies  already 
on  the  ground  were  not  inclined  to  be  hos- 
pitable, and  the  government  wras  loath  to 
grant  any  permits  without  the  consent  of 
the  existing  missionary  bodies.  Mr.  Denyes 
was  not  unaware  of  the  former  effort,  but 
64 


Java. — A  Providential  Mission.    65 

it  was  borne  in  upon  his  mind  that  God 
would  have  us  go  forward.  Bishop  Warne 
assured  him  that  if  he  found  anybody  to 
undertake  to  finance  the  movement,  he 
would  appoint  Denyes  to  Java.  Cease- 
lessly the  missionary  pondered  the  matter 
and  prayed  with  deepening  intensity.  In 
America  he  was  thrown  into  the  company 
of  the  young  people  of  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  while 
engaged  with  them  in  the  missionary  ex- 
hibits at  various  conventions.  To  meet 
Denyes  was  to  hear  about  Java.  The  Java 
idea  took  hold  of  the  young  Pittsburgers. 
Presently  Dr.  J.  F.  Goucher,  of  Baltimore, 
was  drawn  into  the  Java  circle,  and  it  be- 
gan to  be  apparent  to  many  that  this  was 
not  the  dream  of  an  enthusiast,  but  a  mes- 
sage from  God. 

To  sum  up  briefly,  the  Epworth  Leagues 
of  the  Pittsburg  Conference  became  filled 
with  the  idea  of  planting  a  Mission  of  their 
own,  for  which  they  would  raise  moneys 
over  and  beyond  the  normal  increase  of  the 
Conference  collections.  They  prevailed 
upon  Secretary  Leonard  to  consent  that 
this  arrangement  should  be  proposed  to 
the  General  Missionary  Committee.  It  was 
5 


66  Malaysia. 

done.  So  high  ran  the  tide  of  the  young 
people's  enthusiasm  that  they  collected 
$4,000,  and  said  to  the  Committee,  through 
their  representatives,  that  they  would  sup- 
ply this  amount  yearly  if  the  Committee 
would  authorize  the  planting  of  the  Java 
Mission.  The  Committee  consented.  The 
Mission  was  begun. 

With  their  children,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Den- 
yes  arrived  in  Singapore,  and  at  the  Annual 
Conference  session  in  February,  1905,  the 
appointment  read,  "to  open  a  Mission  in 
Java,  J.  R.  Denyes."  It  was  thought  best 
that  the  presiding  elder,  Rev.  B.  F.  West, 
an  accomplished  missionary  of  rare  insight, 
should  accompany  Mr.  Denyes,  to  travel 
through  Java  and  locate  the  Mission.  They 
entered  at  Sourabaya,  where  they  were 
welcomed  by  a  group  of  Singapore  Anglo- 
Chinese  school  students.  These  young 
men  besought  the  missionaries  to  settle 
at  Sourabaya,  but  it  was  thought  best  to 
investigate  the  island.  And  so  they  trav- 
eled from  point  to  point,  and  at  each  point 
their  knowledge  of  the  surroundings  was 
promoted  by  the  presence  of  former  Singa- 


Java. — A  Providential  Mission.    67 

pore  students,  who  joyfully  welcomed  the 
party  wherever  they  went. 

It  was  finally  decided  that  the  Mission 
should  be  planted  at  Batavia  itself.  Here 
there  was  a  small  English  congregation 
which  owned  its  own  church.  To  these 
Mr.  Denyes  was  invited  to  minister.  Per- 
mission was  obtained  to  work  in  and  about 
the  city.  And  to  the  Conference  session  of 
1906  Mr.  Denyes  came  with  the  extraor- 
dinary report  that  during  the  first  year  he 
had  organized  three  small  congregations, 
had  seen  many  people  converted,  and  had 
received  over  thirty  into  the  fellowship  of 
the  Methodist  Church.  Since  that  time, 
from  his  home  in  Buitenzorg,  Mr.  Denyes 
has  continued  his  wide  range  of  missionary 
effort,  and  reports  the  most  encouraging 
openings  in  all  directions.  Almost  neces- 
sarily he  longs  for  re-enforcements.  And 
it  is  clear  that  the  large  fruitage  of  the 
Mission  in  the  immediate  enrollment  of 
numbers  of  converts  must  be  looked  for  in 
Java.  The  opportunity  exceeds  anything 
that  opens  to  us  in  the  immediate  future 
in  Malaysia. 


68  Malaysia. 

It  would  not  be  right  to  close  this  para- 
graph without  acknowledging  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  Northwestern  University 
students  who  are  helping  Mr.  Denyes  to 
establish  a  school  in  connection  with  the 
Java  Mission.  If  these  young  people  would 
now  send  one  of  their  number  to  help  the 
Denyes'  for  an  extended  period  of  years, 
they  would  help  to  consolidate  a  young 
Mission  in  a  new  land  which  promises 
wider  success  at  an  earlier  period  than 
in  any  non-Christian  land  in  all  the  world. 

One  can  not  contemplate  the  brief  his- 
tory of  this  Mission  without  recognizing 
how  strangely  the  providence  of  God  some- 
times leads  us  into  movements  which  mere 
human  prudence  would  scarcely  commend. 
And  here,  as  in  many  other  cases,  "the 
foolishness  of  God  is  wiser  than  man;  and 
the  weakness  of  God  is  stronger  than  man." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

JSAN  HAMILTON:  MEMORIAL  TRAIN- 
ING SCHOOL. 


THE:  central  want  of  every  Mission  is  a 
training  place  for  native  preachers.  No 
greater  mistake  can  be  made  by  any  mis- 
sion that  intends  to  root  itself  into  the 
soil,  than  to  neglect  to  provide  for  the 
training  of  the  native  workers.  Whether 
this  be  done  by  each  missionary  attaching 
to  himself  a  small  band  of  beginners  who 
accompany  him  in  his  work,  and  whom  he 
trains  in  the  field,  much  after  the  fashion 
of  the  first  disciples,  or,  as  is  more  usually 
the  case,  by  primary  training  given  in 
schools  set  apart  for  that  purpose,  what- 
ever the  method,  the  training  is  essential. 
In  these  schools  it  is  intended  to  train  the 
men  in  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, the  hymnody  and  Discipline  of  the 
Church,  and  in  at  least  the  main  points  of 
the  religious  systems  they  will  meet,  the 
69 


70  Malaysia. 

popular  objections  to  Christianity,  the  meth- 
ods of  approach  to  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  the  people,  and  such  other  various 
knowledge  as  will  help  to  carry  the  gospel 
message  into  the  hearts  and  lives  of  the 
people. 

The  Malaysia  Mission  for  many  years 
felt  the  necessity  of  such  a  school.  But 
alas !  our  Foreign  Missionary  Society  has 
so  little  margin  for  the  purchase  of  prop- 
erty and  the  setting  aside  of  missionaries 
to  such  distinctive  tasks  as  this,  that  it 
was  years  before  such  a  school  became 
possible.  Dr.  B.  F.  West,  while  presiding 
elder  at  Penang,  so  keenly  felt  the  need 
of  men  of  at  least  some  training,  that  he 
gathered  a  few  in  his  own  home  and  gave 
them  such  attention  as  he  could.  But  as 
he  was  teaching  in  the  day  school  five 
days  in  the  week,  was  preaching  in  Eng- 
lish and  Chinese,  besides  presiding  over  a 
district,  it  can  easily  be  seen  how  fragmen- 
tary would  be  the  time  he  could  devote  to 
this  training  school. 

During  one  of  his  home  furloughs  Dr. 
West  began  to  interest  people  in  this  fea- 


Jean  Hamilton  Training  School.  71 

ture  of  his  work,  and  some  small  begin- 
nings were  made  to  create  a  regular  school. 
But  it  was  left  to  Mr.  Samuel  Hamilton, 
of  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  to  really  call  into  exist- 
ence this  training  institution  by  the  gift  of 
a  -suitable  property  in  Singapore,  and  the 
endowment  of  a  native  professorship,  for 
the  Jean  Hamilton  Memorial  Training 
School,  so  called  in  memory  of  the  little 
maiden  who,  at  five  years  of  age,  was  laid 
away  in  the  beautiful  cemetery  in  Pitts- 
burg.  From  the  beginning  Dr.  West  has 
added  the  care  and  teaching  of  the  young 
men  in  this  school  to  his  other  wide  and 
exigent  labors.  All  that  could  be  done 
under  the  circumstances  has  been  done,  and 
the  results  have  been  gratifying  beyond  the 
utmost  expectations.  It  may  be  said  that 
nearly  every  really  effective  young  worker 
in  the  Mission  is  a  product  of  this  school. 
Man  after  man,  after  two  or  three  years 
of  such  training  as  can  be  given  him,  has 
gone  forth  to  prove  by  a  comparatively 
skilled  and  earnest  ministry  that  the  school 
is  already  invaluable.  But  there  are  long 
spaces  of  time  when  the  presiding  elder 


72  Malaysia. 

must  be  absent  from  Singapore,  and  this  in- 
terruption of  the  teaching  of  the  school  is 
necessarily  a  great  drawback  to  thorough 
effectiveness.  Students  could  be  multiplied, 
and  the  training  made  greatly  more  effect- 
ive if  a  Chinese  and  Tamil  speaking  mis- 
sionary could  be  set  apart  exclusively  to 
this  work.  The  great  need  of  Malaysia  is 
the  endowment  of  an  American  professor- 
ship for  the  headship  of  this  school.  One 
American  with  suitable  native  assistants, 
giving  their  whole  time  to  the  training  of 
a  native  ministry,  would  tell  mightily  upon 
the  whole  situation. 

When  narrating  such  facts  as  these  one 
is  often  interrupted  by  the  eager  statement, 
"Why  do  n't  you  do  it  ?  Why  not  secure 
a  suitable  man  and  set  him  to  work  at  this 
great  educational  problem  ?"  But  alas !  the 
answer  is  so  easily  given, — because  of  the 
absence  of  means.  Here  is  another  place 
where  a  small  gift  of  $25,000  or  $30,000 
would  bless  a  wide  area  of  missionary  oper- 
ations for  all  time  to  come.  There  are 
already  in  this  school,  necessarily  defective 
as  is  its  present  management,  students  from 


Jean  Hamilton  Training  School.  73 

Borneo,  Java,  the  Straits  Settlements,  and 
even  already  one  from  China,  with  two 
from  India.  More  thoroughly  organized 
and  closely  supervised  Christian  missions 
will  soon  be  found  in  all  the  neighboring 
lands,  and  the  school  will  become  such  a 
center  of  power  and  gospel  influence  that 
any  man  who  can,  might  covet  the  oppor- 
tunity of  strengthening  and  fitting  it  to  do 
its  whole  work.  At  this  writing  a  young 
man  from  Western  Pennsylvania  is  under 
engagement  to  proceed  to  this  school  to 
study  the  languages  and  acquaint  himself 
with  the  situation,  so  as  to  be  fitted  for  its 
work.  Bishop  Oldham  has  undertaken  to 
somehow  finance  the  venture.  But  there 
will  be  an  end  to  all  difficulties  connected 
with  it  when  some  far-seeing,  godly  man 
makes  an  investment  to  meet  the  situation. 
Meanwhile,  will  not  the  reader  of  these 
lines  lay  down  this  book  and  put  up  brief, 
earnest  prayer  for  the  blessing  of  God  to 
rest  upon  this  training  school,  that  men 
may  be  taught  not  only  the  elements  of  re- 
ligious literature  which  every  Christian 
preacher  should  know,  but  that  above  all 


74  Malaysia. 

they  may  learn  the  supreme  art  of  winning 
the  souls  of  men?  All  around  this  school 
are  millions  of  unevangelized  people  to 
whom  the  way  of  access  grows  easier  every 
year,  and  surely  there  is  a  call  to  prayer  in 
the  very  circumstances  of  the  case.  May 
much  prayer  be  made! 


CHAPTER  X. 
WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  ASIA. 

ANY  briefest  description  of  the  Malaysia 
Mission  would  be  incomplete  if  it  neglected 
to  describe  the  work  of  the  Woman's  For- 
eign Missionary  Society  in  these  lands.  In- 
deed, it  may  everywhere  be  said  that  wo- 
man's work,  as  related  to  that  of  the  Gen- 
eral Missionary  Society,  is  like  one  of  the 
wings  of  a  bird,  or  one  of  the  oars  of  a 
boat, — the  other  would  be  comparatively 
ineffective  without  this  addition.  A  min- 
istry largely  confined  to  males  can  not  pene- 
trate the  sacred  fastness  of  the  home. 
Everywhere  woman  rocks  the  cradle,  and 
in  spite  of  all  disabilities,  it  is  true  in  Asia 
as  it  is  in  America  that  "the  hand  that 
rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world."  . 

On  entering  Singapore,  Mr.  Oldham 
soon  found  that  while  his  wife  was  ab- 
sorbed in  the  work  that  came  to  both  their 
hands,  it  would  be  necessary  to  find  a 
75 


76  Malaysia. 

woman  agency  to  reach  the  women  dis- 
tinctively. And  then  came  another  one  of 
those  providences  that  so  mark  this  Mis- 
sion. 

On  a  visit  to  India  to  the  seat  of  the 
Conference  to  which  he  then  belonged,  Mr. 
Oldham  met  Miss  Isabella  Leonard,  an 
evangelist  from  America.  With  her  was 
Sophia  Blackmore,  a  young  lady  from  Aus- 
tralia, who  had  been  greatly  quickened  in 
her  religious  life  under  Miss  Leonard's 
ministry  in  Australia.  She  desired  to  be 
a  missionary  to  the  Chinese,  but  the  Aus- 
tralian Church  had  no  such  missions.  Miss 
Leonard  suggested  that  she  accompany  her 
to  India,  and  that  God  would  somehow 
open  the  way  for  a  missionary  career. 
Meanwhile  Missionary  Oldham  had  writ- 
ten to  the  ladies  in  America  most  earnestly 
asking  for  help  at  Singapore.  It  happened 
that  Dr.  W.  A.  Spencer  and  Dr.  M.  M. 
Parkhurst,  of  Chicago,  were  present  at  the 
meeting  and  earnestly  seconded  this  re- 
quest, because  of  their  personal  knowledge 
of  Singapore  gained  during  a  recent  visit. 
The  ladies  heard  the  pleas  and  were  much 
moved  by  them,  but  the  familiar  situation 


Woman's  Work  in  Asia.          77 

of  a  narrow  treasury,  with  increasing  de- 
mands everywhere,  met  them,  and  they 
sadly  declined  to  grant  the  request.  It  was 
a  moment  of  keen  disappointment  and  deep 
feeling.  The  silence  was  broken  by  Mrs. 
Mary  Nind,  that  beloved  mother  in  Israel, 
who  has  since  ascended  in  a  chariot  of 
flame,  who  sprang  to  her  feet  and  said  im- 
pressively, "The  women  from  cold  and 
wintry  Minnesota  will  plant  a  mission  at 
the  Equator."  The  announcement  was  re- 
ceived with  great  favor.  Mother  Nind 
went  home,  stirred  the  women  of  her  State, 
and  redeemed  her  pledge.  The  question 
now  was,  "Whom  shall  we  send?"  While 
they  were  looking  for  a  suitable  person,  a 
letter  was  received  from  Mr.  Oldham  urg- 
ing the  appointment  of  Sophia  Blackmore. 
Happily  Miss  Leonard  was  an  old  friend 
of  Mother  Nind,  and  her  statement  of  the 
case  added  strength  to  the  missionary's 
pleading.  A  cablegram  presently  bore  the 
joyful  words,  "Blackmore,  Singapore." 
And  so  from  Australia  in  the  far  South 
to  Singapore  near  the  Equator,  came  the 
woman  at  the  request  of  women  in  the  far 
North,  and  so  nobly  and  so  splendidly  has 


78  Malaysia. 

this  woman  served,  that  there  can  be  no 
question  that  these  various  converging 
lines,  that  met  at  Singapore,  were  all  of 
them  drawn  by  the  hand  of  Providence. 

Miss  Blackmore  joined  the  Oldhams  and 
proceeded  at  once  to  study  the  Malay  lan- 
guage, and  to  familiarize  herself  with  the 
conditions  of  her  new  field. 

The  steady  help  of  the  Minneapolis 
Branch  has  never  wavered,  and  the  names 
of  Mother  Nind,  Mrs.  Winchell,  and  Mrs. 
Bishop  Joyce  are  household  words  on  the 
lips  of  grateful  missionaries  throughout  the 
Archipelago. 

May  Minnesota  and  Malaysia  ever  be 
mutually  mindful  of  each  other !  And  as 
the  work  expands  may  the  other  Branches 
also  find  some  fruitage  in  these  promising 
lands ! 

Miss  Blackmore  soon  found  that  there 
are  two  directions  in  which  a  woman's 
agency  can  be  most  effectively  used, — 
house  to  house  visitation  to  the  women 
who,  though  they  live  a  freer  life  than  in 
most  Asiatic  lands,  are  nevertheless  com- 
paratively secluded;  and  the  opening  of 
schools  for  girls  in  which  opportunity  is 


Woman's  Work  in  Asia.          79 

given  for  touching  the  young  lives  to 
higher  issues.  In  both  these  directions 
much  help  was  found  in  the  presence  of 
a  strong  boys'  school.  The  homes  of  these 
boys  were  wide  open  to  the  lady  who  came 
saying,  "I  live  where  your  boys  go  to 
school."  Mothers  and  grandmothers  were 
eager  to  see  anybody  who  came  from  the 
place  where  the  children  attended  daily.  To 
find  favor  with  a  woman  from  the  school 
might  possibly  bring  some  added  benefit 
to  the  boys  of  the  household.  A  warm  wel- 
come was  therefore  awaiting  Miss  Black- 
more  in  several  hundred  homes.  And 
again,  the  boys  themselves  are  eager  to 
have  their  sisters  given  some  opportunity 
to  join  them  in  their  studies.  The  girls,  on 
the  other  hand,  seeing  their  brothers  going 
and  coming  with  books  and  slates,  child- 
like, are  eager  to  imitate  them.  And  when 
a  lady  comes  to  the  house  saying,  "Let  me 
do  for  the  girls  what  the  big  school  is  doing 
for  the  boys,"  the  offer  usually  meets  with 
favor.  There  is,  too,  a  growing  appreci- 
ation of  the  value,  even  to  women,  of  being 
able  to  read  and  become  intelligent.  There 
are  many  Chinese  and  other  households  in 


80  Malaysia. 

Singapore  where  a  thorough  culture  is  find- 
ing increasing  favor,  and  the  time  is  not 
remote  when  the  training  of  the  girls  to 
an  intelligent  life  will  be  as  sincerely  under- 
taken by  their  fathers  as  the  preparation 
of  the  boys. 

Miss  Blackmore  began  with  one  little 
maiden  in  the  house,  "Mahlee,"  who  is  now 
the  happy  mother  of  several  little  ones  who 
are  being  educated  to  a  high  grade  of 
Christian  living.  From  house  to  house  the 
missionary  went  and,  employing  assistants 
from  the  English  Church  of  which  Mr. 
Oldham  was  pastor,  she  opened  schools  at 
several  points,  and  organized  a  regular  vis- 
itation of  many  homes,  and  so  in  one  way 
or  another  sought  the  uplift  and  evangeli- 
zation of  the  women  and  girls  of  the  city. 
In  this  work  Salome  Fox  and  other  assist- 
ants show  marked  ability.  The  Minnesota 
women  have  provided  a  Deaconess  Home 
which,  located  on  Mt.  Sophia,  crowns  that 
beautiful  little  hill  and  looks  far  and  wide 
over  the  city  and  across  the  Straits.  Here 
some  sixty  girls  find  a  happy  home,  where 
they  are  being  prepared  for  all  the  avoca- 
tions of  comparatively  educated  Christian 


Woman's  Work  in  Asia.          81 

womanhood,  while  at  other  points  in  the 
city  are  day  schools  in  which  are  found 
several  hundred  girls. 

As  in  Singapore,  so  also  in  Penang 
where  Miss  Clara  Martin  and  Miss  Lilly 
are  doing  excellent  work,  and  at  Taiping, 
Kuala  Lumpor,  and  Malacca  most  interest- 
ing work  is  being  done  in  schools  and  house 
to  house  visitation.  And  amongst  the  chief 
pearls  gathered  in  these  Malay  Islands  are 
the  converted  women  who  in  sanctity  of 
life  and  in  the  rare  grace  of  Christian  liv- 
ing, bless  their  families  and  neighborhoods, 
and  adorn  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  offer  the 
suggestion  that  no  more  fitting  memorial  of 
Mother  Mary  Nind,  who  first  planted  wo- 
man's work  in  Malaysia,  could  be  erected 
than  a  girls'  school  in  Telok  Ayer,  the 
Chinese  residential  suburb  of  Singapore, 
which  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  chief 
Chinese  center  of  the  Straits  Settlements. 
Mother  Nind  spent  much  of  her  life  in 
Minnesota,  but  she  belonged  to  all  the 
Branches  of  the  Woman's  Society,  and  it 
would  be  a  gracious  acknowledgment  of 
her,  for  all  the  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
6 


82  Malaysia. 

ary  Society  workers  to  unite  in  blessing 
Mary  Nind's  Mission  with  a  memorial 
building  called  by  her  name,  to  stand  for 
all  time  as  the  visible  token  of  that  beau- 
tiful personality,  whose  faith  and  ardent 
zeal  first  contrived  a  way  to  send  help  from 
the  women  of  the  Methodist  Church  to  the 
less  privileged,  needy  lives  in  Malaysia. 


CHAPTER  XL 
PUBLISHING  HOUSE). 


IT  was  early  seen  that  at  such  a  meeting 
place  of  the  nations  as  Singapore,  there 
would  be  a  great  demand  for  religious  liter- 
ature to  be  distributed  amongst  the  people. 
There  are  thousands  of  immigrants  who 
land  every  year  and  are  scattered  all  over 
the  islands.  Thousands  of  Malay  pilgrims 
also  proceed  to  Mecca  each  year  calling  at 
Singapore  for  trans-shipment.  A  printing- 
press  and  publishing  house  became  at  once 
an  imperative  necessity.  God  has  a  way  of 
meeting  the  needs  of  a  situation  by  provid- 
ing the  man  first.  When  the  suitable  man 
is  found,  means  for  the  undertaking  soon 
follow.  The  man  in  this  case  was  an  officer 
of  the  Royal  Engineers  of  the  British  army. 
Young  Lieutenant  Shellabear  was  ap- 
pointed to  Singapore  as  an  army  officer  to 
help  in  the  torpedo  defenses  of  the  island. 
He  had  been  converted  in  Alexandria,  and 
83 


84  Malaysia. 

on  coming  to  Singapore  was  greatly  quick- 
ened by  the  ministry  of  the  little  Methodist 
Church.  He  found  that  his  work  required 
the  study  of  Malay,  and  in  this  language 
he  attained  high  proficiency.  The  spirit  of 
the  man  was  stirred  by  the  spiritual  desti- 
tution all  about  him,  and  he  felt  he  could 
no  longer  continue  an  army  officer.  He 
must  preach.  He  soon  became  known  as 
the  preaching  "Kapitan,"  for  such  his 
Malay  hearers  called  him.  The  conviction 
deepened  upon  him  that  he  must  give  all 
his  time  to  this  work,  and  upon  the  advice 
of  Mr.  Oldham,  then  missionary  in  charge, 
he  went  to  England  to  confer  with  his  peo- 
ple. Spite  of  all  difficulties  and  remon- 
strances he  resigned  his  commission,  and 
by  Mr.  Oldham's  advice,  gave  himself  to 
learn  the  art  of  printing.  Meanwhile  Mr. 
Oldham  found  in  America  the  beginnings 
of  a  fund  for  the  purchase  of  a  printing 
plant.  The  first  large  donation  was  made 
by  Miss  Amelia  Bishop,  of  Toledo,  Ohio, 
and  Mr.  Shellabear,  who  had  learned  his 
business  in  London  and  Beirut,  Syria, 
where  he  learned  to  make  the  matrices  of 
the  Arabic  letters,  which  the  Malay  closely 


The  Publishing  House.          85 

resembles,  began  his  work  in  Singapore  as 
a  printing  missionary.  The  press  was  first 
called  the  "Amelia  Bishop  Press."  It  has 
since  grown  to  large  proportions,  and  now 
employs  from  thirty  to  forty  men. 

Mr.  Shellabear  produced  much  of  the 
literature  which  he  printed.  Some  of  his 
dictionaries,  vocabularies,  text-books,  and 
religious  works  are  amongst  the  most 
widely  used  in  all  this  country.  Amongst 
other  products  he  has  translated  some 
hymns  with  exquisite  grace  and  delicacy. 
His  translation  of  "Jesus,  Lover  of  My 
Soul,"  is  as  fine  a  Malay  hymn  as  has  ever 
been  written.  He  has  for  several  years 
been  engaged  by  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society  in  revising  the  New  Testa- 
ment Scriptures,  and  is  now  engaged  upon 
the  Old  Testament.  His  latest  work,  "The 
Pilgrim's  Progress,"  in  Baba  Malay,  is  per- 
haps the  most  notable  recent  addition  to  the 
Christian  literature  of  this  community. 

The  Singapore  Press  is  now  managed 
by  the  Rev.  W.  T.  Cherry,  a  painstaking 
and  faithful  missionary,  who  is  so  progress- 
ive as  to  have  actually  imported  a  lino- 
type '  machine,  and  has  begun  to  illustrate 


86  Malaysia. 

as  well  as  print  and  bind,  and  help  circu- 
late a  large  variety  of  Christian  books  and 
tracts. 

It  is  too  much,  however,  to  expect  a 
mission  pr§ss  to  pay  for  itself.  For  it 
should  be  remembered  that  much  of  its 
literature  is  being  prepared  for  people  who 
are  not  eager  to  pay  for  books  that  hold 
teaching  with  which  they  are  unfamiliar. 
There  is  only  a  small  Christian  clientage, — 
all  the  rest  of  the  community  is  non-Chris- 
tian. And  under  such  circumstances,  that 
the  Mission  should  have  been  able  to  create 
a  press  now  worth  perhaps  $40,000  with 
less  than  $5,000  received  in  all,  as  gifts 
towards  it,  reflects  no  small  credit  upon  the 
ability  and  business  sense  of  the  mission- 
aries in  charge.  The  Press  needs  a  build- 
ing of  its  own.  And  for  $25,000  or  $30,060 
it  could  be  so  housed  and  equipped  as  to 
make  it  easily  self-supporting  and  extraor- 
dinarily useful. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
CONCLUSION. 

IT  has  been  briefly  told  how  in  the  course 
of  twenty-one  years  a  Mission  which  began 
with  but  one  couple,  without  any  money 
from  the  home  Church,  has  gathered 
strength  and  grown  with  the  years.  Now 
it  is  an  Annual  Conference  of  three  dis- 
tricts, with  work  in  eighteen  centers;  six- 
teen male  missionaries,  most  of  them  mar- 
ried, and  eight  Woman's  Foreign  Mission- 
ary Society  missionaries ;  three  native  or- 
dained preachers,  and  forty-five  unordained 
preachers ;  fifteen  foreign  teachers ;  and 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  other  native 
helpers;  a  membership  of  over  two  thou- 
sand, and  a  Christian  community  of  four 
thousand,  with  about  five  thousand  chil- 
dren in  schools;  it  raises  over  $60,000 
a  year  towards  current  expenses,  and 
87 


88  Malaysia. 

with  but  little  help  from  America  has 
accumulated  property  to  the  value  of  $200,- 
ooo.  But  no  mere  figures  can  adequately 
convey  the  stir  of  life  and  the  restraint 
upon  conduct  that  this  Mission  has  brought 
to  these  scattered  island  communities.  In 
over  a  dozen  languages  the  silent  pages 
from  the  press,  and  the  living  voices  of 
earnest  preachers  are  heard  everywhere 
calling  the  people  to  repentance,  and  show- 
ing them  a  more  excellent  way  to  life  here 
and  hereafter.  With  increasing  force  the 
Gospel  movement  runs  everywhere,  and 
thousands  are  being  awakened  to  new 
views  of  life  and  new  hopes  of  eternity. 
While  the  difficulties  have  been  many, 
the  successes  have  not  been  few,  and  there 
is  a  deepening  sense  throughout  the  whole 
Mission  that  with  some  strengthening  of 
our  agencies,  the  better  management  of  our 
Theological  Training  School,  and  some 
added  help  to  the  press,  such  a  future 
awaits  the  Mission  in  this  Island  Empire 
as  will  make  it  second  to  none  in  either 
of  the  continental  areas  of  India  or  China 
which  lie  on  either  side.  In  a  peculiar  way 


Conclusion.  89 

Malaysia  represents  all  Asia.  Here  India 
and  China  meet  in  a  Malay  world,  and  the 
whole  amalgam  prospectively  more  pros- 
perous than  either  of  the  stationary  em- 
pires, must  be  won  for  Christ  and  the 
Christian  Church  in  the  early  days  of  its 
development.  A  great  opportunity  is  be- 
fore us,  and  one  in  which  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  expense  will  always  be  borne 
by  the  people  themselves.  At  this  juncture 
what  Malaysia  urgently  needs  is  the  ad- 
dition of  a  dozen  men  and  women  and  the 
material  strengthening  which  has  already 
been  indicated.  It  would  be  no  impossible 
undertaking  for  a  single  man  of  means,  or 
a  small  group  of  such,  to  place  this  Mission 
where  its  effectiveness  would  be  immedi- 
ately increased  beyond  measure.  But  be- 
yond all  money  questions,  or  even  the  pres- 
ence of  additional  missionaries,  the  men 
and  women  on  the  field  crave  for  their 
work  the  prayers  of  the  Church,  and  desire 
as  their  chief  re-enforcement  that  unceas- 
ing petition  be  made  for  the  outpouring  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  work  in  hand, 
that  throughout  these  fair  lands  a  shout 


90  Malaysia. 

may  begin  to  ascend,  and  that  from  island 
to  island  there  may  ring  out  the  words  of 
that  joyous  consummation  God's  Word 
foretells,  "Alleluia,  for  the  Lord  God  Om- 
nipotent reigneth." 


M317196 


